Freestailo #38 - 6/22/12

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #38 Here

Why I want it to rain

I woke up this morning, and for once in my life, I wasn't totally stoked to go to the station and play you some tunes. We've all had that morning: you wake up, stare at the ceiling, realize you got up earlier than your alarm, lie in bed some more, realize you need to DJ, put on some pants, and grab some records. If it hadn't been for a small theme of "rain" I found between two records I had, I probably wouldn't have had so much fun. 

All right, now let's talk about my experience with the long layer that I did for this show. There were a lot of things I liked, but also a lot of things I didn't like. My thought process for it was to start soft with the guitar, and use the Robert Lax recording to slowly layer, but I accidentally put in the wrong CD, which was a dumb mistake. I think that might have gotten me in a weird groove, despite fixing it immediately. After that, I layered the "Istomonography" track, which perhaps just added a lot of white noise to the equation, along with the jungle sounds, which was more white noise, in a sense. As I listened back to this, it was almost annoying, until the Carpet Musics track came in, which I simply put on repeat for the duration of the layering. I think that this gave a lot of stability to the layering. It had the same calming sound like Robert Lax, but brought together the noise to make aural sense. The Ravi Shankar track was next, which was an interesting balance for the layering, because at times it went together well with the Carpet Musics track, and at times it went together with the noise tracks.

A little infographic I modded for y'all. You're welcome.

Throughout the track, I found myself really focusing on Robert Lax and Carpet Musics, and grouping the others together in a separate track completely, as if the layering was composed of only 2--maybe 3--parts. This brought me to a small revelation about freeform, and the layering technique: it must be aurally comprehensible. I don't know about all of you, but for me, my brain can only take so much of a "noise" soundscape before my ears shut down from listening critically, and therefore must have something to separate. Instead of having 6 things to try to understand, my brain split it into 2 or 3. To successfully layer something, I've concluded that the listener must be able to divide and comprehend it aurally, and that for a long layering, it's best to add things one at a time, with a good solid space in between.

Robert Lax

My favorite thing about the layering piece was the moment when the tracks slowly started ending, but Robert Lax was still talking. I could feel my body relax more and more, especially after such tension throughout the piece, and when it came down to just 1 track (still Robert Lax), my brain had no choice but to focus itself completely, almost like meditation. Like I said before though, I definitely have mixed feelings about how it actually sounded, but the fact that I strandled the line of failure helped me really understand more about how I create more interesting pieces for you guys. 

Let me know what you thought of the show, and especially the layering! 

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain - Shaka Zulu
2. Hugh Masekela: Motlalepula (The Rainmaker) - Techno Bush
3. Edith Piaf: D'Accordéoniste - Disque D'or de Edith Piaf
4. Kohwi: Rem - Hidden Trees
5. Moe Tucker: Hey, Mr. Rain - Moe Tucker
6. Mira: Don't - Mira
7. The Marcels: Blue Moon - The Best of Doo Wop Uptempo
8. Los Marimbas Caliente: Macarenas - The Gaiety and Romance of a Holiday in Mexico
9. Kid Loco: (track 1) - The Graffiti Artist
10. Julius Katchen: Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel - Brahms: Complete Piano Works
11. Whale: Deliver The Juice - All Disco Dance Must End In Broken Bones
12. Bob Dylan: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - The Essential Bob Dylan
13. Coco Rosie: Trinity's Crying - Grey Oceans
14. Mo Kenney: Eden - Eden/Great Escape
15. Tabla Beat Science: Triangular Objects - Tala Matrix
16. Billie Holiday: Stormy Weather - The Unique Billie Holiday
17. Ed Sullivan: How Are Things In Glocca Morra? (From "Finian's Rainbow") - Songs of Ireland
18. Daedelus: Fair Weather Friends - Love To Make Music To
19. Bobby Darin: Mack The Knife - Beyond The Sea/Mack The Knife
20. The White Stripes: Red Rain - Get Behind Me Satan
21. Amon Amarth: Across The Rainbow Bridge - Versus The World
22. Kazumi Totaka: Rainy Day - Animal Crossing GC OST
23. Santiago Navascues: Gaspar Sanz: Twelve Dances from "Instrucción de Música Sobre la Guitarra Española" - Music For The Spanish Guitar
24. Robert Lax: Various - Wake up re:lax
25. Nautical Almanac: Istomonography - Cisum
26. Rainy Season Sounds - Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America
27. Carpet Musics: Hail Storm - Weekday
28. Ravi Shankar: Raga Kaushi Kanhara: Gat in Dhamar - Full Circle Carnegie Hall 2000
29. Bonnie Pink: It's gonna rain! - Rurouni Kenshin Themes
30. Red Sea Pedestrians: Golden Apple - The Electromagnetic Escape
31. Osibisa: Seaside Meditation - Welcome Home
32. The Andrews Sisters: Rum & Coca-Cola - Rum & Coca-Cola/Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
33. The Supremes: The Lady Is A Tramp - The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart
34. Rafael Mendez: The Little Russian Donkey - Magnificent Mendez
35. Madeleine Peyroux: California Rain - Half The Perfect World
36. The Carpenters: Superstar - Superstar/Beasts & Children
37. Himadari: Lucid Lure + Ah, Elektra - Himadari
38. Trio Mediaeval: Nu solen går ned (The sun is setting) - Folk Songs
39. Faze Action: Là-bas c'est naturel - I <3 Serge
40. Regina Spektor: Raindrops - (unreleased demo)
41. Cookie Monster and the Girls: Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco - Sesame Disco
42. E. Koestyara and Group Gapura: Sangkala - Sangkala

Good things:

1. Rum & Coca-Cola: I bought this gem at the NXNE Record Fair, and I hadn't listened to it before bringing it to you guys, so this was as much a surprise for me as (possibly) you. Can't wait to play Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy sometime.
2. Cookie Monster: I think this was a pretty nice way to wrap up the show. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for die Discothek now. 
3. Ladysmith Black Mambazo: I've been listening to this record for the past week quite a lot, and I keep falling in love with it. I'm really happy I got to share it with you guys. You'll probably hear it again. 

Bad things: 

1. Pauses: I don't think they were tooo long, but there were a few pauses that I didn't have a handle on because I was previewing the next song to play, and just lost my head. That'll teach me not to drink coffee before coming to the station.
2. Yawning: Sorry about this. Maybe you don't care, but if we were having a conversation and I kept yawning like I was, that would just be flat-out rude, and not my style. Was this distracting for you?
3. Trio Mediaeval: I just wasn't digging this. The recording was too quiet, and it was just a bit languid for where this was in the set. 

Thanks a lot for listening, and please give me some feedback if you have any! Or even just say hey. Until next week! 

Freestailo #30 - 4/11/12

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #30 Here

"I didn't know radio could sound like that!"

I had a couple of awesome guests on my show today: DJ Non-James, and my new friend Emily, who were lazing around the station around the time that I got locked out of my apartment and decided to come to the station early. Good thing I did, too, because they gave me a lot of inspiration for my show. It all started when James basically told me he was sabotaging my show. I didn't really know what that meant, but apparently it meant playing multiple vinyls of the same song at slightly different beats, and sometimes playing them backwards by propping them up with shot-glasses and ingenuity.

"Why now?" you might ask. When I was talking with Emily and James, he quoted Manager Ben (who was quoting me), and said, "We should start slapping our listeners in the face with WCBN!" So, we decided do try some crazy things. That's what freeform's about: experimenting. We can do anything at WCBN, and we should take advantage of it way more often. I could theoretically be using 3 vinyl, 3 CDs, 2 computers, 1 VHS, 1 DVD, 1 cassette, and 4 microphones worth of audio. And possible more that I don't know about. To me, that is absolute freedom. The only major rule is that you can't say curse words on air.

This is where I want to hear what you think, listeners. What kind of experimentation would you like to hear? What have been your favorite moments of my show?

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Matthew Dear: Reae - EP 1
2. Selwyn Henry: Maturity - Mondo Soca
3. Bio Ritmo: La Verdad - La Verdad
4. Rossy: Mbola Tsara - Island of Ghosts
5. Rainer Maria: Broken Radio - Look Now, Look Again
6. Fats Waller: Go Down Moses/Ain't Misbehavin' - The Rarest of Fats Waller
7. Quentin Tarantino: Interview/"Stuck In The Middle With You" - Truth and Fiction
8. Sarah Vaughn: Someone To Watch Over Me - The George Gershwin Songbook
9. Dabrye: Prefuse 73 - Payback
10. Tony Martin: Autumn Leaves (incorrect) - A Night At The Copacabana
11. The Red Chord: Nihilist - Fused Together in Revolving Doors
12. Radiohead: Life In A Glasshouse - Knives Out [Single #2]
13. Holly Prado: How To Be Nervous/15 Morning Love Stories - Word Rituals
14. Anonymous 4: Sequence: Stond wel, modder, under roode - The Lily & The Lamb
15. Featuring Supercat, Jr. Cat, NIcodemus, Jr. Demus: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Crazy - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Crazy
16. Ruth Wallis: Boobs - Boobs
17. Yeti: La Java Blanche - Accordion Babes
18. Meg Christian: Ode To A Gym Teacher - Lesbian Concentrate
19. The Ukranians: Europa - Kultura
20. Bayette: Thabo - Mmalo-We
21. Andreas Vollendender: Caverna Magica - Caverna Magica
22. Bobby Darin: Dream Lover - Darin at the Copa
23. Radiohead: Lull - Lost Treasures
24. Marvin Gaye: Got To Give It Up - Live At The London Palladium
25. Phillip Glass: Freezing (x2) - Songs From Liquid Days
26. Brook Benton: The Nearness of You - It's Just A Matter Of Time
27. The Nighthawks: Sugar Mama - The Nighthawks
28. The Free Design: An Elegy - Kid Koala & Dynomite D.
29. Simone Dinnerstein: Aria - Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

The Good/Crazy:

1. Radiohead "Lost Treasures": I like to think I'm a Radiohead fan, and I couldn't believe there was an album I hadn't heard of, or that it was so good. 
2. Boobs: Ruth Wallis is a genius. I'm going to play this entire album on the show someday, because every track was pure WCBN gold. Thanks for the tip, Rev. Andrew! 
3. Phillip Glass x2: At this point in the show, James propped a record on a shot class, turned the needle upside down, and played the record backwards, and did the same to another record, but just an 8th-note or so off. It reminded me of when I played 3 different recordings of "Tuba miram" from Mozart's Requiem back to back. 

The Bad/Ugly:

1. Dead air: I know there was a moment of dead air. I don't know what happened, but the Macbook I was playing off of just kind of stopped in its tracks in the middle of the first Radiohead song. I pretended like I was playing 4'33" by John Cage. That was a lie. 
2. Quentin Tarantino Interview: That was a bit of a let-down. I was expecting some layering of the song with the interview, and what I got was 20-seconds of Tarantino, and then the song. Disappointing. 
3. Lackluster ending: I left the rest of it to James before the next DJ came, but my ending was a bit...eh...boring I guess. Not that classical music is boring, but I like to end with a bang. 

Finally done with back-updates! Tune in next week!

Freestailo #19 - 1/18/12

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #19 pt. 1 Here
Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #19 pt. 2 Here
Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #19 pt. 3 Here

Hey future WCBN lovers.

I had a lot of fun with this week’s show, gang. A friend came into the studio, helped me pick out some music, and kept me company for my shift, so I had a lot of new music that I probably wouldn’t have grabbed myself. It was like having a listener constantly calling in requests, except that my listener had a face, and I didn’t have to actually find the requests! It also helps my perspective and understanding of the station to have a helper.

I had an interesting arch in my set that I’ve never had this time: from records to CDs, to records. Usually I try to have a very even mix between records and CDs (and occasionally my personal library) throughout my show, but I used a lot more records than usual, and when I did use CDs, it was later in the set, right before I started using records again. I didn’t mix and match too much. Seeing how smooth my set was, I’ll have to experiment with whatever it was I did, since there were a few variables to this equation.  

Also, shout out to my mom with the Harry Belafonte song. She used to sing this to me all the time, and (even though I played it at 45rpm) it’s fun to find nostalgia in the studio, you know?

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Soloman Burke: I'm Gonna Stay Right Here - The Bishop Rides South
2. Boston Symphony Orchestra: Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 - Brandenburg Concertos No. 4, 5, 6
3. Disney: Various sounds - Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House
4. Arif Sag: Ayrilik Hasretlik - Insan Olmaya Geldim
5. Kim Song-Jin: Sangnyongsan from Yuch'osinjigok (Taegum Solo) - Korean Traditional Music
6. Boiled in Lead: The Man Who Was Boiled in Lead - Boiled in Lead
7. Elf Power: Owl Cut (White Flowers in the Sky) - In A Cave
8. Suppa Micro: Chipinyanko Ra - Obake
9. Hartford Grisman: Hound Dawg - Retrograss
10. Sandy and Eddie Oliver: Shaggy Dog Cha Cha Cha - Dog Songs
11. Nikki and the Corvettes: I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend - Nikki and the Corvettes
12. The Rollers: Knockin' At The Wrong Door - Eccentric Soul 017
13. Telefon Tel Aviv: Bubble and Spike - Map Of What Is Effortless
14. Eddie Harris: These Foolish Things - Eddie Harris Goes To The Movies
15. Tino's Breaks: Bats in my Belfry Dub - Hallowe'en Dub
16. The Aislers Set: Emotional Levy - How I Learned To Write Backwards
17. Justin Brewer: A Rotting Corpse - DEATH
18. U.K. Subs: Hey! Santa - Japan Today
19. The King's Singers: Ecce vidimus eum - Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories For Maundy Thursday
20. Harry Belafonte: Jamaica Farewell - Belafonte '89
21. Jerry Lee Lewis: Great Balls of Fire - Don't You Step On My Blue Suede Shoes
22. The Homosexuals: Divorce Proceeding (From Reality) - Astral Glamour
23. "Big Voice" Odom: Mother-In-Law Blues - Feel So Good
24. Ultravox: Slow Motion - Three Into One
25. Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson: Winter Song - Winter Song
26. Cristina Perri: A Thousand Years - Breaking Dawn
27. Rob Macht: Vishnu - Vishnu
28. Simón Díaz: La Vaca Mariposa/El Becerrito (Venezuela) - Quetzalcoatl
29. Forcefield: ??? - Lord of the Rings Modulator
30. Matthew Dear: Tide - Backstroke

Knockin’ At The Right Door:

1. Haunted house sounds: I’m pretty happy with the layering that I did so early on! It usually takes me awhile to warm up to sets of layering, but this came very easily to me.
2. Shaggy Dog Cha Cha Cha: My friend picked this out, and it was a GEM. I’m always looking for new children’s stories and things to play from our library, but sometimes it takes new perspective to find it.
3. Forcefield: Once again, my friend picked this out. As I was playing it the next DJ came in to get some music and was really digging it.

Knockin’ At The Wrong Door:

1. The Rollers: I’m pretty sure I played “Knockin’ At The Wrong Door” for one of my other shows, and I really hate playing repeats. I meant to find a different song on this album, but Nikki and the Corvettes ended early, and I panicked.
2. Accidental 45s: Turntable 1 has a glitch where if you switch it to 45rpm, then you have to first turn it off, and then back on to use it on 33rpm. Me being a derp, I did not check this beforehand, and played most of the records on Turntable 1 at 45rpm. Bach, the Korean music, Harry Belafonte…all but the Matthew Dear record.
3. Long set is long: Perhaps it was because I had a friend in the studio, but the last hour was…an hour. I didn’t have to play any PSAs or Promos in the middle, so I just kept playing music because I didn’t feel like stopping. In my experience, this creates frustrated listeners.

 Now go listen to more radio!

Dj Cat aka the coolest cat in the world

Thought I'd share this. It's sort of my dream to have a DJing cat now.