Vetiver: “In Studio” on WNYC’s Soundcheck
Gorgeous-sounding Vetiver release, The Errant Charm, out tomorrow. Till then, an interview and live-in-the-studio performance on Soundcheck.
Picnic Party Music with the Ponderosa Stomp
Celebrate the Memorial Day weekend with American Routes. We’ll hang out at the Ponderosa Stomp for the best in swamp pop, garage rock and surf music, all live from the House of Blues in New Orleans. Then we’ll visit with the music maestro and arranger known as the “Creole Beethoven,” Wardell Quezergue and learn how he helped build the New Orleans sound. Plus classic New Orleans music to get your party started.
David Guthartz: Hello, Mr. Giuliani, we speak again.
SC reminded us in comments:
I had a powerful Republican moment watching those clips. I couldn’t help but think of Guiliani’s infamous radio rant about ferret owners….
From the transcript:
There is something really, really, very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I’m being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.
I was in Texas, but, now I’m home.
This was a phone snap taken near Brackettville, TX. The radio told me that we are living in the final days. Is this an assembly point do you think?
You are listening to Los Angeles
Okay. My 24/7 soundtrack. Ambient music and live LAPD police radio.
(Thank you, Mr. Ledgerwood.)
Scott Thompson: Interviewed by Jesse Thorn on “The Sound of Young America”
Thompson on his KITH character Buddy Cole:
It was mostly really queenie guys that were most upset with me. They were like, I can’t believe that you’re always playing gay men like that; I think it’s very insulting and stereotypical. I would be like, why don’t you play your voice in a tape recorder and listen to it, because they’re ridiculous. People were in denial. It was such a polarized time. AIDS was ravaging the gay community, so there was no room for humor. Everything was so deadly serious and earnest and it was life and death, and I think I was seen by a large proportion of the gay community, particularly the Mandarins – - and I love to use that word – - who lorded over the movement as sell out, or the Uncle Tom, or the enemy. To this day it’s still painful for me, because for me I’m like, wait a second, what’s wrong with being effeminate, number one, and number two, lots of gay men are effeminate! It’s crazy! No matter how many weights you lift, you still carry your books like a girl. Grow up! Get a grip! Accept it! I think people were in such a – - it was such a terrible time that Buddy Cole was seen as the enemy. At least Buddy is sexual, he was not neutered, he was never a neutered gay guy. And he was smart! He’s smarter than I am. That queen up until then – - they were always stupid and you laughed at them, and you never laughed at Buddy, Buddy was always in control. He was an alpha queen. I couldn’t understand it; to this day I think they were dead wrong.
A great interview.
The God-Given Gift of a Great Voice
Plastic Jesus
It occurred to me, after making my Plastic Jesus reference in the comments, that most of you would have no idea what I was talking about.
Consider yourselves educated.
Rick Bass, Nashville Chrome
There was a certain sound, a ringing, that a fully tempered saw made when it had achieved that absolute perfect edge. It was a sound the men could sometimes hear, but other times, for whatever reasons, was indiscernible to them. The sound they listened for–the perfect blade–held an eerie resonance, the faint sirenlike echo of a high harmonic that was little different from the tempered harmony the Browns were already learning to achieve with their voices….
“Do we know any other fuckin’ Beatles songs?”
(Via SC)
“I’m a bumblin’ idiot!”
“And I know a bumblin’ idiot when I see one.”
I was driving along, listening to an On Point program devoted to The Glenn Beck Phenomenon, and I just had to pull off the road here outside Barneveld, Wisconsin to share these insights from a caller, who concluded:
“You got to quit listenin’ to that stuff! It’ll rot your brain!”
Bill Callahan performs an NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Amanda sent me this yesterday.
Musicians make such odd faces when singing.
There are three songs, but you can open it in another window and just let it play.
Thank you, Amanda.
There’s Just Something About That Cowbell
In response to Michael’s Silverstein post, I mentioned an interview with Shel Silverstein’s nephew Mitch Myers — and then I got to wondering how many of y’all had heard this piece of NPR commentary from 2005:
“Saturday Night Live” once aired a rock industry spoof where a producer, played by Christopher Walken, wanted to deliver “more cowbell” to a song being recorded. Storyteller Mitch Myers thinks that there is something to the cowbell in rock music that does go beyond the music.
Blooks
Nora Young of CBC radio interviews clusterflock friend, Tim Carmody, about blooks (blog + book). You might also recall Nora’s interview of Jason Kottke last April where he mentions not only clusterflock as a favorite blog, but Snarkmarket, Tim’s springboard into the web. It’s great to see a friend hack his way through the jungle to find himself writing for Wired, the Atlantic, and getting interviewed on the radio; I can only hope there is more to come.
climbing a 1768 foot broadcasting tower
from someone else’s comments
Ira Glass is Mr. Rogers for adults in the 21st century.
We Want It
As Radio Host
I am currently sitting in for Leonard Lopate on WNYC.
Still the hottest chuckle on radio.
A fantastic interview with Ira Glass. Yet unknown: is he a distant cousin of Ida Twahte?
One of the reasons I was interested in doing this interview is because I feel like being wrong is really important to doing decent work. To do any kind of creative work well, you have to run at stuff knowing that it’s usually going to fail. You have to take that into account and you have to make peace with it…
…I feel like this is a really weird example to bring up, but he interviews me and Errol Morris about interviewing. It’s a really funny chapter because I give all of these totally Pollyanna answers—I mean, things I really believe, but I’m like [here he goes into an earnest falsetto, like a very sincere Chipmunk] “I just think that people open up because they sense that somebody’s really interested. It’s just a natural human thing.” And Errol is like “I DOUBT WHETHER WE KNOW OURSELVES, AND THE ACT OF BEING INTERVIEWED IS AN ACT OF ASSERTING A SELF WHICH WE HOPE IS TRUE.” Seriously, every answer is like this. I’m like, “I just think it’s really swell being interviewed!” And he’s like “THERE IS NO SELF.”
A Bad Influence Picks His Role Models
Fabu Terry Gross interview with John Waters on the occasion of his new book, Role Models.
Terry confesses she doesn’t know who Rei Kawakubo is. Waters is cool with it.
Whew!
Our lights are starting to flicker. So if I disappear, blame it on the atmosphere.
Blame it on God!
I blame everything on God.
He set himself up for it!
Fuck, yes.
Almighty la-di-dah.
Just bound to take a tumble.
Alternative Means Of Communication
You can see this cross for miles at night. It is lit and at the top of a mountain, I have been trying to find out how you get to it for years. Finally this year I stumbled up some mountain track and after climbing for what seemed like for ever I arrived at it. A mass of wires and aerials – all surrounding a tiny church which I would imagine was there long before there was any need to transmit using radio waves – prayer was enough, I guess. I suppose they light this cross because they can – the power for the transmitters has brought power for the church and so the cross. My measurements may be way off, but, my GPS told me I was 5,800 feet up and it felt like it!
Tracy Morgan on NPR
I am not a huge fan of Tracy Morgan or 30 Rock, but below is an engaging and mostly serious interview that makes you think the man never turns off. (via fimoculous)
Radio Currency
Update: It’s posted! Go listen and marvel.
_____
Our very own Mary Jeys was on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show this morning to promote the Brooklyn Torch local currency project! Keep your eye here, for the show to post.
Also, she sat on a couch with Rosie Perez.
Destruction Sounds
I’ve just capped off my radio show which will air tomorrow, June 28 from 7-9pm on Free103.9. It’s a two hour show on destruction. Tune in, if you can think you can handle listening to the darkest most scuzzy soundscape show ever recorded in history. If you’re unavailable at that time or radio frequency to break your ears, the show will be available on the show page for later ruination. Grraaawwwhhhhhhrrrrr!
