Just so we're clear, I have no connection to these guys. I mean, they're Mets fans, for crying out loud. Having said that, "Kuff and the Buttheads" is now my favorite band name of all time. In the absence of a Friday Random Ten this week, please tell me: What's your favorite band name? Not your favorite band necessarily, but the name you like the best. Bonus points for links to cheesy videos by said band on YouTube.
I noticed a new name among the E Street Band members on Monday night (not counting fiddler Sister Soozie, as Springsteen explained Patty Scialfa's absence by noting they had three teenagers), but didn't know the reason for it. Now I do.
Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.
According to published reports, Federici last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.
Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed after news of Federici's death.
He was born in Flemington, N.J., a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, N.J., a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.
It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.
After the great experience of Monday's Springsteen concert, I thought I'd try a little something different for this week's random music selections. Here's a list of ten memorable live music performances I've seen:
1. Maynard Ferguson, Snug Harbor, Staten Island, summer of 1985. I saw him again a couple of years later on the Trinity campus. He had a traditional big band with him the first time, and a stripped-down fusion-oriented band, which featured the multi-instrumental Dennis DeBlasio, for the latter. Of the two, I preferred the first show, but the second was in a smaller and more intimate setting - the '85 show was outdoors - and was still an awesome event.
2. Rush, San Antonio HemisFair arena, spring of 1986. The first rock concert I ever attended. The tickets fell into my lap via a friend who couldn't use them on the day of the show. They were touring in support of Power Windows. I wound up seeing them on the next tour in San Antonio, and the two after that in Houston. They're great live performers, but their opening acts always sucked - usually it was some Grade Z heavy metal band, with the lone exception being former Styx man Tommy Shaw on a solo tour. All of it was eminently forgettable.
3. James "Blood" Ulmer, Caravan of Dreams, spring of 1987. I was in Fort Worth with the Trinity wind symphony and jazz band, which did a tour of its own every spring break while I was in college. My buddy Steve Smith had heard that Ulmer, a blues guitarist he loved, was performing the night we were in town (we had our concert in the afternoon, so our evening was free). He persuaded David Raitt and me to accompany him to the Caravan of Dreams to see him play. It was a little too avant-garde for my taste, but the coolness factor in being able to say I did this makes it memorable enough to include.
4. The Who, with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Astrodome, September 1989. All summer long that year there were these obnoxious Miller Lite commercials in which they touted this "big party" they were gonna throw in Texas. This was the party, which also had the Fabulous T-Birds on the marquee. Needless to say, Stevie Ray was the best opening act I've ever seen, and the only one I've seen get called out for an encore.
5. Jethro Tull, The Summit, 1990. They were touring in support of Rock Island, their Grammy-winning "heavy metal" album; they made several wisecracks during the show about that classification. I don't remember what inspired my buddy Matt and me to get tickets for this one, but it was a lot of fun - Ian Anderson had some of the best stage patter of any performer I can recall.
6. Pink Floyd, Rice Stadium, April 1994. I remember driving home from work that evening and hearing a weather forecast that called for storms later on. So I made a detour to Academy and bought a six-dollar rain poncho. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made, for midway into the second set, a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions hit the area. It got so bad, that they cut the show short, while performing "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" - some water had accumulated at the top of the stage set, and it all dumped on them during the song, which led to the cutoff. Even with all that, a good time was had by all.
7. Blue Oyster Cult, Rockefeller's, mid-90s. I don't remember the exact date of this one. As with Rush in '86, it was by chance that I went, as my friend Stephen wound up with an extra ticket. We sat right up by the stage. The two of us were probably the only non-smokers in the place, and it was incredibly loud - I felt like my ears rang for days afterwards. And it was without a doubt the most kickass show I've ever seen. I still measure rock concerts by this standard.
8. Marcia Ball, Pat and Pete's Bon Ton Room, mid-90s. Another one whose exact date is lost to me. Looking back at this list so far, I see that it's one of five shows that were at venues that don't exist any more; six if you count the Astrodome, which isn't really the Astrodome in any meaningful sense these days. That's a little depressing, isn't it? Anyway, this was my first exposure to the Austin blues diva, and she brought that cramped little house down. Big arena shows have their place, but you just can't beat that kind of closeness to a performer.
9. Ceili's Muse, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, April 18, 1997. There was nothing particularly memorable about this show - I must have seen Ceili's Muse fifty times at the Duck back in the day. What makes it a keeper for me, and the reason why I can recall the exact date, is because it was at this show that I met Tiffany. We had our first date the following weekend. That was eleven years ago today. You may now say "Awwwwwwww".
10. Bonnie Raitt, with Keb' Mo', Aerial Theater, 2000. Back before Pace Promotions was assimilated into the Clear Channel vortex, Tiffany's sister Pamela was the manager of what is now the Bayou Place theater. She'd departed for business school by this time, but we were friendly with her successor, who helped us score sixth-row center tickets for this show. Those were the best seats I've ever had for a big-venue concert. And Keb' Mo' was the second-best opening act for any show I've attended.
So there you have it. What's the best live music performance you've ever seen?
Pretty good list, actually. Here's the criteria:
These songs were chosen for their originality, wit, humor, and lasting popularity. Novelty = "New or unusual". Most 'Novelty' songs are comic takes of current events, cultural fads, or holidays, along with parodies of established hit songs, and comedic narrations put to music.
Anyway, as I said, it's a pretty good list, one that will likely have me poking through YouTube and iTunes to learn more about the unfamiliar names on it. Check it out and see what you think. Thanks to Matt for sending this to me.
What an awesome concert. I may not hear anything today, and I'm a little sleep-deprived, but man, was it worth it. Bruce Springsteen is God, and we were truly privileged to see him and the E Street Band perform last night.
During the show, Tiffany pointed out a little girl, maybe nine years old, down in the general admission area with her mom and brother. It got me to hoping that Bruce and company are still doing this in another six or seven years, so that we can take Olivia to see him play (Audrey too, if it's a little later than that). Seeing how fit and energetic he was at the Toyota Center, that doesn't seem too unreasonable a thing to wish for.
UPDATE: Pete was there as well, and he provides a set list.
Remember that pub in New York that banned Danny Boy last month? Well, they have now lifted the ban, as Saint Patrick's Day is safely in the rearview mirror for the year.
Danny Boy is back in the musical fold at a Manhattan pub where the familiar ballad was banned for all of March.Foley's Pub and Restaurant held a party Wednesday night to mark the end of the musical prohibition.
Danny Boy is often seen as an Irish standard, and some consider it symbolic of the Irish diaspora that began around 1850. But Foley's Irish-born owner, Shaun Clancy, calls it depressing -- and he notes that it was written by an Englishman who never set foot in Ireland.
Clancy declared Danny Boy off-limits last month, including on St. Patrick's Day.
Is it Friday already? Why, yes, it is. Time for some random music!
1. "I'm My Own Grandpa" - Asylum Street Spankers. I was musing about whether this was a song that came from someone's actual real-life experience, or if it was just a flight of fancy, and came across this little treatise, which tells me the answer is a little bit of Yes to each. My God, I love the Internet.
2. "Jim Dandy" - Black Oak Arkansas. And while I was on that train of thought, this song started playing, and I started wondering about the origin of that phrase. Apparently, it has its roots in baseball. Who knew?
3. "Blister in the Sun" - Violent Femmes. From the soundtrack to the movie Grosse Pointe Blank. I'd argue this was the beginning of the 80s music nostalgia craze. If only the playlists for 80s music radio stations were as good as this.
4. "Skokiaan" - Bill Haley and the Comets. And now that 80s music is the new oldies, I wonder if Classic Oldies like this will have a place on the radio any more. I think you can still find it on the digital cable music channels, at least.
5. "One" - Eddie From Ohio. What happens when a couple gets a little too close to each other.
6. "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" - John Lee Hooker. I'd believe him if I were you.
7. "Cool for Cats" - Squeeze. Dedicated to Rob Booth, the biggest Squeeze fan in the city.
8. "Daisy" - The Go Gos. And since I've mentioned 80s music twice, I'll point out yet again that there isn't a single station in the country that will play both the classic Go Gos tunes from the 80s as well as anything from their latest release. This has never made sense to me.
9. "He Moved Through The Fair" - Paisley Close. I have at least four versions of this song. Nothing deliberate, mind you, it's just very widely covered.
10. "Friend Is A Four-Letter Word" - CAKE. They're coming to (near) Austin soon. I'm so jealous.
Have a random day!
No intro, just random music...
1. "The Rainbow Connection" - Kermit the Frog. From The Muppet Movie, of course, probably the first truly quotable movie I ever saw. "Bear left!" "Right, frog!" "You, you with the banjo, can you help me? I seem to have lost my sense of direction!" "Have you tried Hare Krishna?" "Sparkling Muscatel, one of the finest wines of Idaho." I could go on, but you get the picture.
2. "That Was Your Mother" - Paul Simon. Kind of a bookend piece to "Born At The Right Time", though you'd think the idealistic latter song would be the one to write first.
3. "War" - Bruce Springsteen. From the 1975-1985 live CDs. Remember when the NFL took the Edwin Starr original, cut out all of the "What is it good for?" stuff, and turned it into a glorification of guys hitting each other? That was probably the most flagrant abuse of a song and its meaning till Wrangler Jeans turned Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" into a backdrop for flag-waving.
4. "This Land Is Your Land" - Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, two from the same CD. I'm fascinated by the idea that this song was written as a response to "God Bless America". I can kinda sorta see that, but if no one had ever told me that fact, it never would have occurred to me.
5. "Romeo and Juliet" - Dire Straits. My favorite song off of my favorite Dire Straits CD. I realize that Douglas Adams preferred Tunnel of Love, not that there's anything wrong with that, but this one's my fave.
6. "Crawlin' King Snake" - John Lee Hooker. Here, have a video.
7. "The Cross" - The Jubilettes. From a CD of Prince covers by Austin artists. As with many of the songs on this CD, if you didn't know it was a Prince song going in, you wouldn't realize it as you were listening to it. I love it when music crosses genres like that.
8. "Love Hurts" - Nazareth. Many moons ago, on Valentine's Day, one of the local DJs - it may even have been Dayna Steele - played a listener-suggested block of songs in honor of the day. (She did a regular feature during her shift, which covered the lunch hour, called Work Force Blocks, which were usually three or four songs from a particular artist, with some variations like this one thrown in.) The playlist was, in order, "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band; "Love Hurts"; and "Love Bites" by Def Leppard. Clearly, someone was feeling a bit cynical about the whole enterprise.
9. "Wonderwall" - Oasis. Tiffany attended grad school in Manchester around the time these guys were hitting it big. So yes, she has their stuff in her collection.
10. "52nd Street Theme" - Tommy Flanagan. From a CD tribute to Thelonius Monk. All my playlists have some jazz on them.
What are you listening to these days?
No cutesy intro this week. Just the music:
1. Fly Robin Fly - Silver Convention. Amazing how much song you can wring out of the lyrics "Fly, robin, fly, high up to the sky".
2. Sneaking Sally Through the Alley - Robert Palmer. It's a little hard to believe that this is the same guy who'd later give us Bad Case of Loving You and Addicted to Love. But that's the difference between the 70s and the 80s.
3. With Plenty of Money and You - Count Basie. Finally, a love song that's truly honest about what makes for a happily-ever-after ending.
4. Excuse Me - Peter Gabriel. Possibly the weirdest song he recorded. Don't get me wrong, it's also one of my favorites. But weird, definitely weird.
5. Let It Ride - BTO. BTO is one of those groups that's kind of like a bag of potato chips - the sort of thing you crave from time to time even if you don't know why, you consume more of it than you know you should, and you feel vaguely guilty about it afterwards. Is that deep or what?
6. Pick Up The Pieces - Average White Band. Another 70s pop song that was arranged for jazz band and duly played by yours truly in high school.
7. Surf's Up - Beach Boys. You'd think with a name like that it'd be one of their staples, but I don't think I've ever heard this one on the radio. It's a lot more mellow than you'd think.
8. I Want To Be Like You - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. From "The Jungle Book", originally done by the inimitable Louis Prima. I really like an arrangement done by Los Lobos for a Disney music tribute called Stay Awake, which is one of the more eclectic albums in my collection.
9. Planet Claire - The B-52s. My sister Eileen had a friend named Claire when we were kids. She hated this song, just as Eileen hated "Come On Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners, and my friend Rhonda hated the Beach Boys' classic "Help Me Rhonda". I can't say I blame any of them.
10. Guyana Punch - The Judys. Technically not on my iPod yet, but included here in tribute to the local fave's welcome comeback, which included a gig at South by Southwest.
It's depressing, it's not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day, and its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil.Those are only some of the reasons why a Manhattan pub owner is banning the song "Danny Boy" for the entire month of March.
"It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration," said Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, across the street from the Empire State Building.
The 38-year-old Clancy, who started bartending when he was 12 at his father's pub in County Cavan, Ireland, promised a free Guinness to patrons who sing any other traditional Irish song at the pub's pre-St. Patrick's Day karaoke party on Tuesday.
How about a little random music to soothe you through the post-primary letdown? Well okay then...
1. "Eleanor Rigby" - Ray Charles. Sometimes you just don't know what directions a song can go until someone who draws his own maps covers them.
2. "I Can't Turn You Loose" - The Blues Brothers. I am pleased to note that even though the year 2006 has come and gone, it is not the case that the music once known as the blues can now only be found in the classical record section of your local public library. I was worried about that for awhile there, but not any more.
3. "Love Will Keep Us Together" - Captain and Tennille. Am I the only one who remembers their variety show from the 70s? Am I the only one who remembers the phenomenon of variety shows from the 70s?
4. "All Revved Up With No Place To Go" - Meat Loaf. For an album as famous as "Bat Out of Hell" is, it's amazing how little airplay any of its individual songs have gotten. I think I heard "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" once on an AM station back in 1984. Since then, I can't recall any instances. What's up with that?
5. "Downtown" - The B-52s. Hey, they have a new album coming out! Don't ask me about the crazy NFL-referee motif in their outfits, but here's a question: Will any radio station that currently plays their best-known song "Love Shack" ever play anything from this new record? I'm guessing the answer will be No. Such is the music business these days.
6. "Blues Power" - Eric Clapton and BB King. Yeah, I'd call that blues power.
7. "You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon. Just watch the video. Am I the only one who remembers when Chevy Chase was funny?
8. "Solsbury Hill" - Peter Gabriel. One of two popular songs that get regular rock radio airplay I can think of that are written in 7/4 time. Can you name the other? I'll put it in the extended entry.
9. "Willin'" - Little Feat. Another underrated and terribly under-played band. We have them to thank for "Dixie Chicken", and for that we are grateful.
10. "Les Boys" - Dire Straits. Dedicated to Governor Perry.
Happy Friday!
The other well-known 7/4 song is Pink Floyd's "Money".
How about a little random music to soothe you through the post-primary letdown? Well okay then...
1. "Eleanor Rigby" - Ray Charles. Sometimes you just don't know what directions a song can go until someone who draws his own maps covers them.
2. "I Can't Turn You Loose" - The Blues Brothers. I am pleased to note that even though the year 2006 has come and gone, it is not the case that the music once known as the blues can now only be found in the classical record section of your local public library. I was worried about that for awhile there, but not any more.
3. "Love Will Keep Us Together" - Captain and Tennille. Am I the only one who remembers their variety show from the 70s? Am I the only one who remembers the phenomenon of variety shows from the 70s?
4. "All Revved Up With No Place To Go" - Meat Loaf. For an album as famous as "Bat Out of Hell" is, it's amazing how little airplay any of its individual songs have gotten. I think I heard "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" once on an AM station back in 1984. Since then, I can't recall any instances. What's up with that?
5. "Downtown" - The B-52s. Hey, they have a new album coming out! Don't ask me about the crazy NFL-referee motif in their outfits, but here's a question: Will any radio station that currently plays their best-known song "Love Shack" ever play anything from this new record? I'm guessing the answer will be No. Such is the music business these days.
6. "Blues Power" - Eric Clapton and BB King. Yeah, I'd call that blues power.
7. "You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon. Just watch the video. Am I the only one who remembers when Chevy Chase was funny?
8. "Solsbury Hill" - Peter Gabriel. One of two popular songs that get regular rock radio airplay I can think of that are written in 7/4 time. Can you name the other? I'll put it in the extended entry.
9. "Willin'" - Little Feat. Another underrated and terribly under-played band. We have them to thank for "Dixie Chicken", and for that we are grateful.
10. "Les Boys" - Dire Straits. Dedicated to Governor Perry.
Happy Friday!
The other well-known 7/4 song is Pink Floyd's "Money".
I've lost track of how many articles I've seen predicting the death of old-fashioned commercial radio, but here's another one with some interesting tidbits in it.
Broadcast radio faces challenges from satellite radio companies for listeners, from the Internet for advertisers and even from automakers who are making it increasingly easy for drivers to turn their car stereos into mirror images of their iPods and skip the radio altogether.Cutbacks haven't worked out so well, serving only to speed the exit of listeners and making it harder to maintain smaller and smaller profit margins. Increasingly conservative playlists have made radio less essential to even the most casual of music fans, who don't feel like they're missing anything if they don't listen every day since the same 10 or 15 songs are in heavy rotation for a month or longer.
In the name of cost-cutting and a jaded belief that listeners would tune in to whatever was on, CBS Radio eliminated New York's heritage oldies station WCBS for a DJ-free hits format called Jack, and turned its alternative rock station K-Rock into an all-talk channel, leaving New York without a rock station at a time when the city's rock scene was in the midst of a resurgence. Both moves failed and both stations have since returned to their original formats, losing listeners and momentum along the way.
All these previous mistakes seem to be on the mind of the folks behind the new rock station WRXP, "The New York Rock Experience," which replaced lite-jazz station WQCD on Feb. 5.At a time when most radio stations around the country try to seem like they could be from anywhere, RXP is pledging to focus on New York area artists and songs about New York. It's starting with a wide playlist that looks to combine alternative rock, mainstream rock and oldies in a way that will appeal to the 18-to-44 demographic, especially at the wealthier older end.
It's a good plan to try to introduce Led Zeppelin fans to White Stripes, to let Depeche Mode fans know about The Killers and The Bravery, to let Pearl Jam fans discover Spoon. It's also an interesting idea to remind rock fans that New York still is a breeding ground for loads of great new bands, including The Hold Steady and The National, who have both found homes on the station.
Are we done with Presidential debates, at least for now? Good. Let's debate some Friday random music instead. Cue 'em up...
1. "Momamma Scuba" - John Cale. I have no idea what this song is about. Hell, I don't even know what the title means. But who cares? It was the 70s. You had to be there.
2. "Gypsy Wedding" - Moby Grape. Back when I was a geeky high schooler taking a class that was called Unified Math and which covered some non-traditional-for-high-school-math topics as group theory, we encountered the following riddle:
Q. What's purple and commutative?
A. An Abelian grape.
Apparently, grape-themed humor has also been used in the application of band names. I feel oddly comforted by this.
3. "Topaz" - The B-52s. Cosmic Thing was one of those CDs I never quite got around to buying back in the day. Listening to it again now, I realize that I'd forgotten how good it was. It's way more than just "Love Shack".
4. "Superstition" - Beck, Bogert & Appice. Not a bad cover, but when you're competing with the Stevies Wonder and Ray Vaughn, the bar is pretty high. On a completely random tangent, if you've never seen the video for Beck's song "Ambitious", check it out. In addition to an awesome array of 80s hairstyles, it features a hilarious appearance by Donny Osmond. Need I say more?
5. "The Day The Bass Players Took Over The World" - Trout Fishing In America. - That would sure eliminate the need for these tedious debates.
6. "Old Friends" - Simon and Garfunkel. From the Concert in Central Park. How terribly strange it is to realize that in less than four years, the two of them will find out what it's like to be 70.
7. "I Knew The Bride" - Dave Edmunds. I'd like to be invited to the kind of wedding that would feature this song at its reception.
8. "End Of The World" - Great Big Sea. Also a pretty good cover, with all of the manic energy of the original, but as it doesn't have an equivalent to the Leonard Bernstein moment, I've gotta award the prize to REM.
9. "Suavecito" - Malo. I played an arrangement of this tune in high school jazz band. Why there was a jazz band arrangement of it, I couldn't say.
10. "Twenty Naked Pentecostals In A Pontiac" - Cornerstone. Based on an actual true news story from 1993 that was like manna from heaven for pretty much every Wacky Morning DJ in America. When people say that truth is stranger than fiction, this is the sort of thing they have in mind.
The follow list of ten random songs has nothing whatsoever to do with the Presidential primary, and very little to do with politics of any sort.
1. "Turn the Beat Around" - Vickie Sue Robinson. Resolved: Every disco song ever written is in some sense about disco itself. Discuss.
2. "Rock Lobster" - The B-52s. I've mentioned before how it can be disconcerting to finally hear the original version of a song for which you'd only heard the Weird Al Yankovic parody previously. The same is true for MOB-arranged songs, of which this is one. I'd probably played the MOB version for a decade before I ever heard the B-52s rendition. Let's just say that Ken Dye does an amazingly good job at distilling tunes like this to their essential core, and then quitting while he's ahead.
3. "Everybody's Everything" - Santana. Another MOB song, with an even longer interval before I heard the original. Having now heard it, I wonder why it took so long. This is a hot little tune, and I can't quite understand how after twenty years of Classic Rock prevalence, it never once made it onto any station's playlist. What do "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" have that this song doesn't?
4. "Quartet (A Model Of Decorum and Tranquility)" - from the "Chess" soundtrack. I love contrapuntal music.
5. "We Will All Go Together When We Go" - Tom Lehrer. There are days in which I think this is a hopeful song. Those are not good days.
6. "Train Train" - Blackfoot. I'm pretty sure the opening harmonica riff was the inspiration for Eddie From Ohio's "Train Song". Everybody's got a folk song about a train, after all.
7. "I Know A Little" - Lynyrd Skynyrd. Is it just me or does anyone else think it's a little weird that the same group that blithely told Neil Young to kiss its redneck ass also did one of the more strident pro-gun control songs out there? That has nothing to do with this song, but it seemd like as good a time as any to bring it up.
8. "Bustin' Loose" - Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Nothing like a little good funk.
9. "All the Way to Memphis" - Mott the Hoople. I know we're all inured to the Dave Barry concept of thus-and-such making a great band name, but I'd always wondered about this one. Turns out it's taken from a novel, much like Steppenwolf and (after a fashion) Steely Dan. Does anyone still name their bands this way?
10. "Your Racist Friend" - They Might Be Giants. Just a guess, but I don't think this song is on Kelly Siegler's iPod right now.
That's all for now. You may begin mocking in the comments at your leisure.
And after my four-week foray into covers and pseudo-covers, it's time again to talk about songs that came up on the iPod shuffle. Let's roll...
1. "Silent E" - Tom Lehrer. "Who can turn a can into a cane? Who can turn a pan into a pane? It's not too hard to see it's Silent E!" I cannot wait till Olivia is old enough to want to watch the "Best of The Electric Company" DVD that I got some time ago.
2. "Jocko Homo" - Devo. Resolved: Gnarls Barkley is this generation's Devo. Discuss.
3. "One Night In Bangkok" - from the "Chess" soundtrack. Listening to this after the recent death of Bobby Fischer makes me think that they knew what they were doing when they wrote the character of the American champion.
4. "Dixie Chicken" - Trout Fishing in America. Yes, it's a cover. You didn't think I'd get too far away from that, did you? I don't even know who does the original, but it doesn't matter. I like this version just fine.
5. "Boogie Oogie Oogie" - A Taste of Honey. Exactly how much can one boogie oogie oogie before one is incapable of boogie-ing any more? Sadly, science has failed us on this question.
6. "Last Night" - Travelling Wilburys. Oh, Roy Orbison, why did you have to die so young?
7. "Playground In My Mind" - Clint Holmes. Possibly the most annoying song I have in my entire collection. I love the 70s, but man, some of what passed for a hit back then was truly bizarre.
8. "Would I Lie To You?" - The Eurythmics. Freshly acquired from iTunes via that still-not-fully-depleted gift card. There was an air guitar contest at Trinity back in the day in which two different people, Kim and Karl, did this song. Kim was a natural redhead, but Karl had an authentic Annie Lennox buzz-do, so he scored higher.
9. "Lucretia Mac Evil" - Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Has there ever been another band quite like BS&T? I guess Chicago's earlier stuff is similar, but without David Clayton-Thomas' vocals, it just isn't quite the same.
10. "Born At The Right Time" - Paul Simon. The song that was going through my head when Olivia was born. I still get a little verklempt when I hear it. Give me a minute here, willya?
OK, I'm back. More randomy goodness next week. Happy Friday!
One thing that bedeviled me as I put together my cover-related Random Tens was running into songs that were definitely not the same, but bore the same name. To apply the final bludgeonings to this expired equestrian, here's a Random Ten list of different songs with the same name.
1. "Bookends" - Eddie From Ohio/Simon and Garfunkel. Being different songs doesn't mean they can't have similar themes, however.
2. "Cherry Bomb" - John Mellencamp/The Runaways. And they can be very different. The latter, from the soundtrack to "Dazed and Confused", is the song that Mellencamp's nostalgia-drenched narrator would warn his children about. Here's a slightly NSFW video so you can see what I mean.
3. "Closer" - Asylum Street Spankers/Keb' Mo'. The Spankers' version is a cover of the Nine Inch Nails song. It's quite possibly the most tasteless thing they've ever done, which is both a compliment and really saying something. "Tasteless" is not a word one would ever use to describe acoustic guitar bluesman Keb' Mo', whom Tiffany and I had the good fortune to see open for Bonnie Raitt some years back.
4. "End of the Line" - Hot Club of Cowtown/Travelling Wilburys. You know, I miss the Wilburys. Their first album was awesome. They never recaptured that magic, perhaps due the the untimely loss of Lefty Wilbury, but they'll forever stand as the exception to the rule that supergroups of the 1980s sucked.
5. "Fire" - Bruce Springsteen/Ohio Players. The Boss don't do disco.
6. "Good Thang/Thing" - Miss Molly/Fine Young Cannibals. I don't need to point out to anyone that Thang and Thing are interchangeable, do I?
7. "I Don't Wanna Know" - Phil Collins/Indigo Girls. I can't think of anything clever to say about this one.
8. "Once In a Lifetime" - Talking Heads/Trinity University Jazz Band. Once again, two very different songs. A million years ago, I had a Rodney Dangerfield comedy album that opened with him crooning a little bit of the jazzy "Once In a Lifetime". I can't quite picture him doing that for the Talking Heads song.
9. "My Home Town/Hometown" - Tom Lehrer/Bruce Springsteen. It's amazing, and a bit sobering, how many of Lehrer's then-topical satires still resonate 40 or 50 years later.
10. "Reason To Believe" - Bruce Springsteen/Rod Stewart. - Yes, that's three same name/different song entries involving Bruce Springsteen. Actually, there was a fourth, a Miss Molly song that now escapes me, as well. Why so much title overlap for Springsteen, I couldn't tell you.
And that, at long last, should be the end of the cover obsession. Next time, we'll do an old-fashioned, honest-to-Elvis random shuffle.
It's time to lighten the mood around here a bit, I think. So let's go with a third week of cover-related Random Ten goodness - see here and here for the first two installments.
1. "Your Horoscope For Today" - Lager Rhythms/Weird Al Yankovic. Do you think anyone has ever tried to parody a Weird Al song? He does a lot of originals, like this one. How would you parody Weird Al? That's a question that might keep me awake tonight.
2. "You Are My Sunshine" - Norman Blake/Ray Charles. Remember how I said earlier that I believe one mark of a truly good song is if it can be interpreted in completely different ways by different artists? That's as true of old-fashioned folk music as it is of pop. Norman Blake's version is from the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. Ray Charles' version is pure Ray Charles. And they're both wonderful.
3. "Uncle John's Band" - Indigo Girls/Grateful Dead. I think I prefer just about every cover of a Grateful Dead song to the original I've ever heard - that's certainly true for what's on the "Deadicated" CD. Doesn't mean the originals aren't good, just that I think the covers are better.
4. "All Around My Hat" - Ceili's Muse/The Mollys. Another old folkie, and another big variation between the two versions. This time, it's lyrical and thematic as well as musical - the Mollys take the "waiting for my true love to return" idea, and add an ultimatum to it, which IMHO was sorely needed.
5. "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" - Annie Lennox/The Persuaders. Not really a whole lot of difference between these two.
6. "Rock This Town - Stray Cats/Brian Setzer Orchestra. Like Phil Collins covering Genesis' "Behind the Lines", Brian Setzer takes one of his old standards and runs with it. It's longer and jazzier, but not as starkly different from the original as Collins' effort was.
7. "Proud Mary" - Creedence Clearwater Revival/Ike & Tina Turner. Pro-CCR: Their version is in my singing range. Pro-Ike & Tina: The MOB arranged their version. Tough call, but I think the Turners win by a nose.
8. "Walkin' Blues" - Eric Clapton/Muddy Waters/Asylum Street Spankers. Some artists do covers. Some artists are covered. Muddy Waters is an example of the latter.
9. "Vincent" - Don McLean/Tufts Beelzebubs. And a capella groups are an example of the former. That's a feature, in case you were curious.
10. "Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival/Thea Gilmore. I wasn't going to include another CCR song in this set, but then I found this "Buffy"-themed video set to the Thea Gilmore version of the song, and I figured that meant I had to include it. Yeah, I know, I'm a huge geek.
I think I've just about exhausted this theme, at least as far as my own music collection goes. So tune in next week, when I come up with a variation on that theme.
Continuing with last week's theme, here's ten more songs for which I have multiple versions in iTunes.
1. "A Fool In Love" - Ike & Tina Turner/Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli. I know I've said there's only one Tina Turner, but sometimes three divas are better than one. I like the Texas blueswomen's collaborative effort here, which as they say in the liner lines was the first time singing backup for any of them. By the way, the song's lyrics, about being so madly in love with your man that you want to do anything for him even though he maybe doesn't treat you as well as he could, is an interesting window into the Turners' relationship.
2. "Groove Me" - Blues Brothers/King Floyd. A bit outside the box for the Blues Brothers. It's still good, but I prefer the original.
3. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" - Amy Grant/Frank Sinatra/The Pretenders. That's quite the stylistic span, isn't it? Christmas music can do that.
4. "I'm Beginning To See The Light" - Count Basie & Joe Williams/Duke Ellington/Bobby Darin/Tufts Beelzebubs. You want to know what the definition of a "standard" is? Anything that gets covered by the likes of Basie & Williams, Ellington, Bobby Darin, and university a capella groups.
5. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye/Creedence Clearwater Revival. Hey, kids, you're not going to believe this, but back in the old days, when radio DJs were responsible for selecting and actually playing tunes on the station's record player (go ask your parents what that is), the CCR version of this song and its eleven-minutes-plus length was a popular choice when they needed a potty break, as it gave them enough time to get back and get a new song ready to go. Boy, the things we all had to endure back then.
6. "I Will Survive" - CAKE/Gloria Gaynor. The disco classic and girl-power karaoke favorite meets...well, I'm not sure exactly how to describe CAKE's version. But I like it. See for yourself.
7. "If I Had A Boat" - Eddie From Ohio/Lyle Lovett. Words can't express how much I love this song. As EFO's Robbie Schaefer says after he does their cover of it, it's one of those songs you wish you'd written. Here, have another video.
8. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" - Lager Rhythms/They Might Be Giants. Every time I hear someone say "Istanbul", I have to quash the urge to say "Not Constantinople". Please tell me I'm not the only person who does this.
9. "Kodachrome" - Paul Simon/Tufts Beelzebubs. Seeing all these a capella versions on today's list reminds me that I need to go buy some CDs by The Bobs. I just don't have enough a capella music in my collection.
10. "Linus and Lucy" - Asylum Street Spankers/Vince Guaraldi. Also known as the Snoopy Dance Song, it sounds very different when done without a piano. But that's one of the joys of covers, isn't it? Getting to hear an old favorite in a new and unexpected way. I think it's axiomatic that the best songs out there are the ones that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I can't say I've found a counterexample yet.
I hope you've enjoyed this little exercise, because I haven't exhausted it yet. I'll be back next week with more.
Been awhile since I've done a Friday random ten, so let's get back into it. This one isn't really random, strictly speaking. I came across the song "American Girl", which I'd always identified with Tom Petty, done by Roger Guinn, on a collection of seventies rock music, and it got me to thinking about covers, in particular ones that I have where I also have the original. What follows is a list of songs from my iPod for which I have multiple versions:
1. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Asylum Street Spankers/Johnny Mercer & Margaret Whiting. A holiday standard. Wammo's vocals really bring out the subtle creepiness of the male half of the duo, so I like that version more than the somewhat vanilla Mercer/Whiting combo.
2. "Behind the Lines" - Genesis/Phil Collins. It's a little weird for Collins to have covered something he did with Genesis, but his bouncy, horn-infused version is quite different, and in my opinion superior.
3. "Brain Damage" - Austin Lounge Lizards/Pink Floyd. The very first Lounge Lizards song I ever heard. Took me a minute to realize what I was hearing. I've been a devoted fan ever since.
4. "Casey Jones" - Warren Zevon/Grateful Dead. Zevon's version is from a collection of Dead covers called "Deadicated". In general, I prefer the new versions to the originals, and this is no exception.
5. "Come Together" - Aerosmith/Ike & Tina Turner. I don't think I have the original Beatles version. I'll have to doublecheck. Not that it really matters - this tune works best with a singer who's got a superstrong set of pipes, and isn't afraid to use them. Steven Tyler does that well, but there's only one Tina Turner.
6. "Dance This Mess Around" - Asylum Street Spankers/The B-52's. The Spankers have a fair number of covers in their repertoire, and it's fair to say they span a broader spectrum than most, and put more of their stamp on their covers than most. I had a hard time believing this wasn't one of their freaky originals when I first heard it. And I still don't know what "all sixteen dances" are, since the song only names about half that many.
7. "Desperado" - Clint Black/Lager Rhythms. Another one for which I don't have the original. I actually kinda prefer the Eagles' rendition best - there's just something about Don Henley's voice. That said, Clint Black's countrified version works well, and I'm always a sucker for a capellas. Call it a three-way tie.
8. "Five O'Clock World" - Flying Fish Sailors/The Vogues. A very faithful rendering by the Fish of a song I really like. Their version is a bit more spare, and I think that tips the scales in its favor for me.
9. "Gloria" - Patti Smith/Van Morrison. I almost didn't realize this was the same song, as Smith's version is more than twice as long as Morrison's. Dave Barry once wrote that if you threw a guitar over a cliff, if would bang out the chords for this song on its way down as it bounced off the rocks. That may be true, but given a choice, I want that guitar to be Van the Man's.
10. "God Bless the Child" - Billie Holiday/Blood, Sweat & Tears/Julie Murphy. I know this is going to make me sound like a heretic, but I prefer the BS&T version over Billie Holiday's. Go ahead, mock me for that.
That's ten songs and I'm still in the Gs. I'll continue this next week.
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions on how to spend my $15 iTunes gift card. I've bought ten songs so far, and since Michael asked in the comments what I bought, I thought I'd post an update. Here's what I got:
- Four songs by the Asylum Street Spankers - yes, I'm a completist: "I Am My Own Grandpa", "Funnel of Love", "Stinkin'", and "Goodbye, Cousin Early".
- "White Rabbit", by the Austin Lounge Lizards. Who knew there was so much not-on-CD music by my favorite artists out there? I know, I know, "everyone currently living in the 21st century". Humor me, OK? And may I say, nothing says psychedelia quite like some mad banjo-pickin'.
- "Vehicle", by the Ides of March. One of my favorite songs of all time, a staple of the MOB's repertoire, and which up until a couple of years ago I'd have bet my house had been done by Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Shows how much I know.
- "The Underdog", by Spoon. Recommended by the Chronicle and Chad Orzel. How could I go wrong? Taking some excellent advice from the comments to my initial post, I found it on YouTube and dug it, so I bought it. And they're a Texas band, too. Sweet.
- "LDN", by Lily Allen. My thanks to Mark Bankston for the recommendation.
- "Metro", by the Vincent Black Shadow. Olivia likes it, and so do I.
- "Fall Behind Me", by The Donnas. A song I discovered when I started tuning into KACC.
That's it so far. I received several recommendations for CDs, and I decided I'll spend a little of my Christmas money at the revitalized Cactus Records on some of those. On my wish list: "Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse; "Icky Thump" by the White Stripes; the Springsteen/Seeger Sessions thing; maybe the "Knocked Up" soundtrack and the Once soundtrack (thanks, Matt); and there's still more stuff to check out from the comments. Oh, and a visit to Wasted Talent to fill that Judy's-sized hole in my collection, too. I'll let you know when I'm finished. Thanks again to all for the feedback.
So one of the Christmas presents I got this year was a $15 gift card for the iTunes store. Now in the old days, back when I was walking uphill in the snow to school every day, fifteen smackers bought me a CD. Needless to say, that's so 20th century. I want to be a modern music consumer and just buy me a few individual songs, like the cool kids do. Problem is, I don't have a very good feel for what tunes are out there that I simply need to have. And so I turn to you, my readers and your collective intelligence. If you had $15 to spend on iTunes, what song or songs would be on your must-have list? Please leave your suggestions, along with any relevant info about why I should have these songs and why I'm a cretin for not already having them, in the comments. Thanks very much.
Every year at about this time, I link to Mark Evanier's wonderful story about Mel Torme and a group of charmingly clueless Christmas carolers. And every year when I reread it, it gives me goosebumps. This year was no exception. Go, read, and enjoy. And please join me in wishing Mel Torme a Merry Christmas, wherever he may be.
It wouldn't be Christmas without an accounting of Christmas songs you hate, would it? I'll open the bidding with any version of "The Little Drummer Boy", whose ad nauseum refrain drives me crazy every time. I'm also ready to plug my ears with whatever's handy whenever "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" comes up on the radio, which appears to be every five minutes. What Christmas song or songs could you go another year (or lifetime) without ever hearing again? Leave a comment and let me know.
It wouldn't be Christmas without an accounting of Christmas songs you hate, would it? I'll open the bidding with any version of "The Little Drummer Boy", whose ad nauseum refrain drives me crazy every time. I'm also ready to plug my ears with whatever's handy whenever "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" comes up on the radio, which appears to be every five minutes. What Christmas song or songs could you go another year (or lifetime) without ever hearing again? Leave a comment and let me know.
Back when the city passed its more comprehensive smoking ban, there was a lot said by folks in the local music industry about how this would kill the bars, especially those that feature live music. I'm glad to see that John Nova Lomax, who had done some of that public fretting back then, has now taken the time to check around and see if some of those apocalyptic predictions have come true. He starts out by giving free rein to one musician and his anti-ban rant:
It's safe to say that John Evans is no fan of the recently enacted smoking ban. To him, the municipal stubbing out of our collective ciggies is another step in a long process of pasteurization that is making Houston less, well, Houston."This has always been a 'Screw you we're from Houston' kind of town, the last frontier," he says. "Let everyone else be all tight-ass, but now we're just like everybody else."
What's more, he believes it is harming his bottom line. "The smoking ban is kicking our ass," he adds flatly.
[...]
With Evans's rant in mind, I decided to call a few more people in the Houston music scene to gauge opinion on the first 90 days of the ban. Here are their responses:
Pam Robinson, owner, Walter's on Washington: It really hasn't had much of an effect on overall attendance.Geoffrey Muller, musician in the Sideshow Tramps and a host of other bands: I haven't really noticed a difference.
Byron Dean, singer, Poor Dumb Bastards: Being in a band and being a smoker, it absolutely sucks.
Allen Hill, bandleader, the Allen Oldies Band: I wasn't a fan of how it became law, but now that it is here, I love it both as a showgoer and a performer.
Tom McLendon, owner, The Big Easy: It certainly hasn't helped business.
Thomas Escalante, singer in the El Orbits and the owner of record store Sig's Lagoon: It's been refreshing.
JJ White, singer-guitarist, Dizzy Pilot: As a nonsmoker I was against it, and I am still against it after the ban.
Pete Mitchell, owner, Under the Volcano: I'm really confused. So much of the feel of my place has changed. The regulars have been shifted to the patio, and there's not that banter with the bartenders there used to be. Ultimately, though, I think this is a time of transition, and my gut feeling is that people will just smoke less in the future. More people will just give up.
Brad Moore, owner, the Pearl Bar: Mike Simms told me a funny story about the Dwarves show at Rudyard's a while back. The Dwarves are kinda infamous for doing 20-minute sets, but this time they played for 45 whole minutes. They wanted to do an encore, but the whole room had cleared out as soon as they finished; everybody had stampeded out to the patio. Their fans weren't expecting them to play that long, and all of them went to go smoke as soon as they were done.
Miss Leslie, singer in Miss Leslie and the Juke Jointers: The smoking ban has been fine, but you have to get used to watching half your audience walk out to go smoke in the middle of your set.
John Egan, singer-songwriter: Who cares? What's everybody getting so bent out of shape about one way or the other? It's less smoky. Big deal.
Elsewhere, the Press notes that the smoking ban is being cited as a factor in the closing of Cosmos Cafe.
In an e-mail note to customers on Thursday, owner Pete Pallas said a combination of factors led to his decision, including his workload, not having enough customers willing to support live music, and the recent smoking ban introduced by the City of Houston.
My inner math geek was amused by this story about the annual onslaught of Christmas music from one of the local radio stations.
Chestnuts roast, sleigh bells ring, drummers drum and angels are heard on high in 700 combinations for the next 26 shopping days and beyond on Houston radio station KODA (99.1 FM), one of more than 260 stations nationwide playing Christmas music and nothing but Christmas music through Dec. 25.This is the eighth year the Clear Channel Radio-owned station has put its soft adult contemporary format on post-Thanksgiving Day hiatus in favor of nonstop holiday music, said Sunny 99.1 program director Mark Sherman, who co-hosts the station's morning show with Dana Tyson.
Sherman said the station has about 700 holiday performances in its library. It plays about 20 songs an hour, which means each performance will receive multiple plays over the next month. Sherman, however, said the format never wears on him, even though he's been doing it since 1999.
First, do they really play 20 songs an hour? I figure between commercials, promos, and DJ chatter, each hour has about 45 minutes of music. Christmas songs are often shorter than your standard pop offering, but this is an average length of two minutes and fifteen seconds. Is that for real? I'd assume it's more like 15 songs per hour, but hey, he's the program director.
So let's assume 20 songs per hour and run with it. If the total catalog is 700 songs, then they will run through the entire thing every 35 hours. From the day after Thanksgiving (Nov 23) to Christmas is 33 days - if we cheat and expand things to Nov 22-Dec 26, we get 35 days and a simple solution of each song getting 24 plays during the interim. At the very least, each one will get spun a minimum of 20 times. That's a lot of rum-pa-pum-pums, you know?
I'm still at that happy place where I haven't yet been so inundated by Christmas music that I reflexively cringe when I hear it. Probably a good thing for me that KODA is not one of the preset buttons in my car.
The Austin Lounge Lizards and Consumers Union, who banded together two years ago to bring us The Drugs I Need and It's Always Christmastime for Visa, have done it again with a new song and video about toy safety, an issue that's closer to my heart these days than before. I can't actually tell what the name of the song is, but as it's the Lizards, it's worth listening to regardless. Or, if you just want to know what it's about, click here. Thanks to Grits for the pointer.
I think I know what to get Tiffany for Christmas now.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform April 14 in Houston, for the first time in more than five years. More information on the venue and on-sale date is expected Nov. 29.The iconic rock hero is currently performing in the U.S. and will head overseas before returning stateside in the spring.
Springsteen's current album, Magic, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and has sold more than 1 million copies. It currently sits at No. 27 after six weeks.
My guess is a Toyota Center date, with the possibility of a second show. Ticket prices are ranging from $65-$95 in most cities.
As you know, I don't listen to talk radio, but this story about some changes in the lineups here interested me.
Talk-show hosts Chris Baker and Cynthia Hunt have been taken off the air at Clear Channel-owned radio stations KTRH (740 AM) and KPRC (950 AM) .Hunt said Tuesday she was told Monday night by Michael Berry, director of AM programming for Clear Channel Houston, that the KPRC show she hosted with Baker was being canceled. Baker also hosted a solo afternoon drive-time show on KTRH.
"They're going more into the Radio Mojo format (on KPRC), which is kind of like Radio Maxim for men," Hunt said. "I will absolutely miss the show and getting to talk to people every day and hear what they think about important issues."
[...]
According to Clear Channel's Web sites, Baker's departure from KTRH will be filled by extended hours for the syndicated Sean Hannity show, which will air from 2 to 5 p.m., and Berry's local show from 5 to 8 p.m.
KPRC's schedule shifts the Walton and Johnson show and the Erich "Mancow" Muller shows to fill the two-hour afternoon gap left by the departure of the Baker and Hunt show.
I know, I know, nobody thinks that far ahead in the business world, and besides, Clear Channel is just trying to beat the other old-school talkers. Well, good luck to you with that. To borrow from Lawrence Garfield, sooner or later y'all will have the best damn buggy whip any of us have ever seen. LST, blogHouston, Laurence, and John Coby pile on.
I missed this bit of great news over the weekend.
How appropriate today, Day of the Dead, to celebrate the resurrection of Cactus Music & Video. The venerable Houston store that died and was buried a year and a half ago is coming back to life."Finally, I get to go buy records again," said local singer-songwriter Tody Castillo, who was helping set the place up on Thursday.
The store won't open until sometime next week -- managing partner Quinn Bishop was purposely vague about the details -- but those wanting a sneak peek are invited to an art opening tonight at the new incarnation, Cactus Music, at 2110 Portsmouth. That's across from the eclectic little shopping center that is home to everything from Amy's Ice Creams and the Stag's Head Pub to the Tuesday Morning discount retailer.
"It's a weird little corner at Portsmouth and Sandman," said Bishop, who will be circulating and showing off the new digs at tonight's reception. "But it's a great space. I think people will be knocked out by it. This is our way of having a little fun and building the anticipation."
Cactus returns as a full-service store, with vinyl records as well as CDs, but it also will house a showplace for music-themed art called the Record Ranch Gallery. The first exhibit is Day of the Dead Rock Stars, a series of Day of the Dead-inspired portraits of deceased music icons such as Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain, Patsy Cline and Jimi Hendrix.
This was sent to me by my friend Laura:
In celebration of their 25th Anniversary and in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month during October, the Bayou City Performing Arts will partner in collaboration with the Houston Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure for a once in lifetime event. The Gay Men's Chorus and the Bayou City Women's Chorus will come together as Bayou City Chorale to present Sing for the Cure ®. Th is is a 70-minute, 11-movement choral song cycle for full chorus, soloists, narrator and chamber orchestra. Based on written journal entries of women and their journey with breast cancer, librettist Pamela Martin weaves a tapestry of humanity struggling with cancer. Crafted by 10 different composers in a variety of styles, SING FOR THE CURE ® is a powerful story to be told.20% of all ticket sales will be donated to the Houston Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
For more details see http://bayoucityperformingarts.org
We've got ourselves a new station format in town.
The eclectic, iPod shuffle-like music format known as Jack FM [made] its Houston debut at 10:37 a.m. Friday at 103.7 FM.The Cumulus Media station, now known as KIOL or Rock 103.7 FM, will be reformatted as KHJK, said Pat Fant, Cumulus' Houston market manager.
Houston will be the seventh market in Texas and the fifth top 10 market in the country to add Jack FM, which formats about a thousand songs by 500 artists in 18 genres of music dating from the late 1960s through today.
Jack FM operates without live DJs, so Cumulus will attempt to find positions elsewhere in the company for Rock 103.7's current on-air personalities.
Mark Evanier has been busy digging up old videos of Tom Lehrer performing his wonderful (and, sadly, often still timely) songs. Here is one of my favorites, "National Brotherhood Week".
The iPod is best known as an instrument of solitude -- unless the user ignores standards of etiquette by invading the eardrums of fellow commuters, office mates or other innocent bystanders. Then it starts to get annoying. Especially when you're stuck in close proximity.Amped to its highest volume, the iPod is not nearly as invasive as the classic loud cell phone conversation. But it can have its moments. Like when you're standing in an elevator at 9 a.m. and a co-worker cranks up Amy Winehouse's Rehab. (Too early for that song.) Or when an ear-budded subway rider belts what sounds like a Whitney Houston tune with careless abandon, causing other riders to inch away or flee into another car altogether. (True story.)
"I've heard that problem quite a lot, people singing along," said Leander Kahney, managing editor of Wired magazine's Web site. "And, of course, my kids -- when they have the iPod in, they shout. They don't realize with the headphones they're being too loud, so they'll conduct conversations without taking their ear buds out. And they're yelling."
I noted before that the unfunny duo of Walton and Johnson was to move from rock station 103.7 KIOL to talk radio station 950 AM KPRC. They make their debut next week.
They'll host the morning talk show 5:30-10 a.m. Mondays through Fridays.The two began their new show Monday. They left KIOL on July 20.
At KIOL the duo provided talk programming in the midst of a hard-rock format. At KPRC, they join an all-talk format.
Not that I really care - I'd rather undergo root canal sans novocaine than listen to those morons - but I am curious about the result. I don't understand the logic behind the move, but you never know. HouStoned has more.
Every once in awhile, I see a spike in search engine referrals to this site for the same thing. Sometimes it just means that Google has reindexed, and I've become the #1 result for a particular search ("Diane Zamora" is the usual suspect for this one), and sometimes it means that someone or something I've written about before is in the news again.
Today, I'm seeing a bunch of referrals for "Walton and Johnson", who are a couple of troglodyte wacky-morning-DJs in Houston. I did a little Googling myself and found this vague message on their own site, but came away unsure of what was happening. Thankfully, I eventually came to Mike McGuff's blog, where all became clear. Apparently, soon-to-be-former City Council Member/current radio mogul Michael Berry is fixing to shake things up at one of the talk radio stations here. Which apparently has some folks up in arms.
Not that I care. You couldn't pay me enough to listen to any of that junk, W&J most definitely included. I'm just glad to know what all the Googling is about.
Of all the things to come out of the Sopranos finale, I'd have to say this was the least expected. To me, anyway.
The Sopranos is over, but the last song featured on the show, Don't Stop Believin' which the band Journey released in 1981, keeps going as its lyrics say, "on and on and on and on."According to Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, downloads of the song from iTunes went from about 1,000 on the day before the episode to 6,531 the day after. For the week, the song climbed to No. 17 in popularity on iTunes, while the band's Greatest Hits also cracked the Top 20.
On the radio, airplay of Don't Stop Believin' increased 192 percent Monday through Thursday over the first four days of the previous week, according to Nielsen BDS, which tracks airplay.
It was not the first time the band had television to thank for a royalties windfall. In 2005, after Don't Stop Believin' was featured on the season premiere of MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, it ranked in the top 10 on iTunes.
The song also enjoyed a 150 percent increase in downloads the week after it was featured in an episode of Family Guy on Fox in 2005, according to Nielsen.
While song downloads were not tracked in 2003, when Don't Stop Believin' was featured in NBC's Scrubs, overall retail sales of Journey's Greatest Hits increased 51 percent in the first full week after the show aired, according to Nielsen.
And for what it's worth, I forget where I saw this, but someone suggested the reason why Tony played that particular song is that the B-side to it in the little jukebox was Any Way You Want It, which is apparently the real message from David Chase about what actually happened when the screen went blank. Makes as much sense as anything else I've heard.
One of the songs that KACC radio has on fairly regular rotation is "Metro" by The Vincent Black Shadow (music video here, for those who are unfamiliar with it). Recently, every time it has played, Olivia has announced "I like this song". I can't think of any other song for which she has voiced an opinion, positive or negative. So the question for you is, what does this portend for her future musical tastes? If it helps, I like it, too. Does this make me more or less likely to be appalled/freaked out/horrified by the stuff she'll be listening to as a teenager? Please discuss. Thanks.
Another post in my occasional series on the impending death of the compact disc. Today's entry: This could be the last good Christmas for the music industry and its CD sales.
Despite costly efforts to build buzz around new talent and thwart piracy, CD sales have plunged more than 20 percent this year, far outweighing any gains made by digital sales at iTunes and similar services. Aram Sinnreich, a media industry consultant at Radar Research in Los Angeles, said the CD format, introduced in the United States 24 years ago, is in its death throes."Everyone in the industry thinks of this Christmas as the last big holiday season for CD sales," Sinnreich said, "and then everything goes kaput."
It's been four years since the last big shuffle in ownership of the major record labels. But now, with the sales plunge dimming hopes for a recovery any time soon, there is a new game of corporate musical chairs afoot that could shake up the industry hierarchy.
For the companies that choose to plow ahead, the question is how to weather the worsening storm. One answer: diversify into businesses that do not rely directly on CD sales or downloads. The biggest one is music publishing, which represents songwriters (who may or may not also be performers) and earns money when their songs are used in TV commercials, video games or other media. Universal Music Group, already the biggest label, became the world's biggest music publisher on Friday after closing its purchase of BMG Music, publisher of songs by artists like Keane, for more than $2 billion.Now both Universal and Warner Music Group are said to be kicking the tires of Sanctuary, an independent British music and artist management company whose roster includes Iron Maiden and Elton John. The owners of all four of the major record companies also recently have chewed over deals to diversify into merchandise sales, concert tickets, advertising and other fields that are not part of their traditional business.
Even as the industry tries to branch out, though, there is no promise of an answer to a potentially more profound predicament: a creative drought and a corresponding lack of artists who ignite consumers' interest in buying music. Sales of rap, which had provided the industry with a lifeboat in recent years, fell far more than the overall market last year with a drop of almost 21 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (And the marquee star 50 Cent just delayed his forthcoming album, Curtis.)
One more thing, on a personal note:
More than half of all music acquired by fans last year came from unpaid sources, including Internet file sharing and CD burning, according to the market research company NPD Group. The "social" ripping and burning of CDs among friends -- which takes place offline and almost entirely out of reach of industry policing efforts -- accounted for 37 percent of all music consumption, more than file-sharing, NPD said.
Well, as I watch Elvis Costello hawk Lexuses (Lexi?) on TV, I wave goodbye to one of the last holdouts from the pre-80's era. It's now assumed that if you were a rock star with any integrity from this era, you now have no problem using your song about "social revolution" to sell jeans, trucks and Carnival cruises. The Who, Dylan, The Clash, Iggy Pop, Mellencamp, Sting...the list is long and depressing. The only holdouts remain Neil Young and Bruuuce, who turned down $12 million to use Born in the USA for Chevy.
In this kind of environment, the idea that a musician who works at all with a major label or sells a CD through a store like Tower or had concerts with middleman ticket sellers who charge exorbiant fees could somehow remain pure from "selling out" by refusing money to have her music in commercials became utterly silly. Shilling for Coca-Cola is a minor sin compared to any of these other practices, where you're working with the industry to bilk fans of their hard-earned cash directly. In addition, a lot of indie rock types have been openly sympathetic to the fan complaints about pricing, and have sought alternate avenues to distribute their music that are a lot more affordable. In that situation, selling a song to Target for their commercials is seen not as selling out to the man, but a way to earn money through your music so you don't have to sell out to the real villains in the music industry. Hearing the Go! Team on a Honda commercial doesn't affect me in the way that paying $20 for a CD would, and furthermore, I know that the money they earned from the commercial gives the band leverage against their record company in terms of deciding how to tour and distribute their music, which results in cheaper ticket prices for me, if nothing else.
Back when vinyl ruled the world, I was never much for buying 45s instead of regular LPs, so I never really noticed as the record industry killed them off. But it's still amusing to see the format get resurrected in a modern form.
Almost a decade after virtually eliminating 45s and cassette singles, thereby forcing fans to spend more money on whole albums, the digital single is largely responsible for the industry's woes.Consumers no longer need to buy an album if they want that cool jam they heard on the radio -- and in growing numbers, they're choosing 99-cent downloads over $15 CDs.
Some worry this trend is worsening the quality of albums as a cohesive musical work, and that label executives are more and more interested in quick hits than lasting music or artists.
While the vast majority of music consumers still buy CD albums, they are buying less of them, while digital tracks are exploding: According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales of physical CDs this year have declined 20 percent from the same point in 2006, from 112 million to 89 million. Digital tracks are up to 288 million from 242 million at the same period last year. And that's not counting the millions of singles that are illegally downloaded."Now, we're in a very difference place in terms of the single business," Jim Donio, president of National Association of Recording Merchandisers, said in an interview. "The single business is alive and well, and it's in the form of track downloads."
The same cannot be said, however, for albums. Even counting albums that are downloaded along with physical CDs sold, album sales are down 10 percent from the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, continuing a decline that has been growing for several years.
[...]
"We tried to stop selling a commercial single because people were making great, great records and albums were selling like hot cakes," says longtime music industry executive Steve Rifkind, founder of Street Records Corp., home to platinum singer/producer Akon, and Loud.com.
But removing the option of purchasing a single may not have helped the album much, either -- and may have actually boosted the original illegal downloading services like Napster, says [Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard magazine].
"The notion that someone would jump to an album-length purchase because they couldn't find the one song they wanted available was a naive one," he said.
And at 99 cents or so, singles bring in much less profit than albums (which is why iTunes has been pressured by record companies to raise its prices).
Amazon is finally taking on Apple.The Seattle-based online retail powerhouse said Wednesday said that it would open a digital music store with a consumer-friendly twist that, Amazon hopes, will give Apple's iTunes a run for its money.
The difference: Customers can do anything they want with the songs they buy.
I love this.
Pete Townshend probably never imagined this generation singing his song.A group of 40 British seniors (average age: 78) called The Zimmers scored a YouTube hit, gleefully singing The Who's My Generation in a video that has been viewed by 1.5 million people since its posting April 2.
In it, they smash guitars. They re-create The Beatles' walk across Abbey Road. They hold up a sign saying, "I'm bored in old people's homes."
And now American talk shows, such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, are calling. A download will be available May 21 at British iTunes. A BBC documentary featuring the group, Power to the People, airs May 28, the same day the CD single of My Generation goes on sale.
"We're hoping to be at No. 1 for at least two weeks," says the group's manager, Neil Reed.
Have I mentioned lately how much I've enjoyed this little Friday diversion? Well, I have. As noted on Monday, I'm looking for some collaboration on this one. If you've got a list, send me the link or leave it in the comments. And so, without further ado...
1. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (instrumental) - John Hartford. I forget if there's three versions of this song on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack or four, but it doesn't matter. They're all worth listening to.
2. Justify My Love - Madonna. "Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna. Never will." One of my favorite movie quotes of all time. If you ask me nicely, I can say it with a pretty passable imitation of Joan Cusack's Staten Island accent. Given that all of my sister's friends in high school sounded like that, this should be no surprise.
3. Take The "A" Train - Duke Ellington. One of my favorite versions of this song was done by the Ray Brown Trio, on the awesome album "Soular Energy", where it was rendered as a slow, funky waltz. I've gotta track down a copy of that CD some day - all I had was a taped version of the CD my summer-of-1987 housemate Pete owned, and Lord only knows where that is now.
4. Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel. Do you think anyone's ever told Kate Bush that she could cut back on the breathy-voice thing by about fifty percent without losing the overall effect? Just curious.
5. Pick Up The Pieces - Average White Band. I could swear I played a jazz band arrangement of this sucker back in high school. You'd be amazed what they arrange for jazz band.
6. For The Longest Time - Billy Joel. In my senior year at Trinity, the concert choir sold singing telegrams as a Valentine's Day fundraiser. I got to co-sing the lead on this one, which was all kinds of fun. We also offered "You Can't Hurry Love", "My Funny Valentine", "You Are My Sunshine", "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", and - easily our bestseller - "Sit On My Face (And Tell Me That You Love Me)". Hey, it was college, you know?
7. Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley and the Comets. Like (I suspect) most children of the 70s, I can't hear this song without thinking of the TV show Happy Days. Sit on it, Pottsie.
8. Deal - Doctor John. From an excellent collection of Grateful Dead covers called "Deadicated". I don't think I have the original version in my collection, but I do have a lot of original/cover combos for other songs. I may have to base a Random Ten on that some day.
9. Bitter Tears - INXS. Is there a band with a more distinctive sound than INXS? As in, you can tell within a few beats that you're hearing an INXS song, whether it's one you've ever heard before or not? I can't think of any offhand.
10. Home, Sweet Home - Aerosmith. True story: In 1997, my dad and I were driving through the back roads of Oregon, on our way to some small town for a minor league baseball game (it might have been in Bend, I don't remember exactly) where we'd meet up with my uncles and some cousins. Somehow, we'd managed to find a decent radio station along the way. Just as we were approaching a road sign announcing that we had entered the city of Sweet Home, Oregon, this particular song came on the radio. Clearly, we were in the right place at the right time.
That's my ten for the week. What's yours? Send me a link or leave 'em in the comments.
UPDATE: Here's Greg's list.
UPDATE: Coyote Mercury and H-Town Grooves join in.
I gotta see this somehow.
Spinal Tap is back, and this time the band wants to help save the world from global warming.The mock heavy metal group immortalized in the 1984 mockumentary, "This is Spinal Tap," will reunite for a performance at Wembley Stadium in London as part of the Live Earth concerts scheduled worldwide for July 7.
The original members of Spinal Tap will be there: guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest), singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). Rob Reiner, who both directed "This is Spinal Tap" and played the fake documentarian Marty DeBergi in the film, will also be in attendance.
A new 15-minute film directed by Reiner on the band's reunion will also play at the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Wednesday. The slate for the opening gala, to be hosted by Al Gore, was previously announced, excepting the Reiner short.The festival is to open with a showing of several global warming-themed short films produced by the SOS (Save Our Selves) campaign. SOS is also putting on the Live Earth concerts, to be held across seven continents.
Reiner spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday to explain the reunion of Spinal Tap -- a band always known more as a parody of rock `n roll excess than environmental awareness.
"They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming," said Reiner, whose other films include "When Harry Met Sally" and "Stand By Me." "Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing -- that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."
[...]
The director said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives lately. Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race, but can't find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.
Seems my recent Friday random music-blogging effort has spawned a few replies. I hereby give you the Random Ten efforts of Greg Wythe, Jeff Balke, and once removed from my post, Houston Grooves. I kinda like the collaborativeness of this. I'll post another one this Friday, so if you want to join in, let me know.
UPDATE: Okay, make it a random forty, as Laurence was in on it as well.
I've got a floor-to-ceiling shelf for our CDs. The left half is mostly filled with the non-mainstream, bought-at-the-Mucky-Duck CDs, while the right half is mostly filled with the music you might hear on the radio, much of which was bought by Tiffany and I before we met each other. I've been ripping CDs approximately one playlist at a time, and with the current playlist, I've basically finished off the left side of the shelf and have moved on to the right side. That will explain the difference in obscurity and eclecticism among the artists.
Without further ado, here are ten of the first songs I heard from that new playlist:
1. Don't Let It Get You Down - Fine Young Cannibals A Tiffany CD. Is it embarrassing for me to admit that I've kinda liked all the songs I've heard from this disc so far? Help me out here, the dividing line between 80s Music That's Cheesy In A Good Way and 80s Music That's Cheesy In A Bad Way isn't always clear to me.
2. Susie Q - Creedence Clearwater Revival Two songs in a row by artists whose names are also TLAs. That's got to mean something.
3. Car Wash - Rose Royce Don't blame me for this one. It's from a CD of 70s music that my sister-in-law put together to help celebrate my dad's 70th birthday.
4. And So It Goes - Billy Joel This one you can blame me for. I like Billy Joel. Sue me.
5. The Partisan - Leonard Cohen From a 1975 "Best of Leonard Cohen" CD that doesn't include any Leonard Cohen songs I'd ever heard of before. I think he has more "best of" collections than regular albums.
6. Layla - Eric Clapton The song and the CD that started the whole "unplugged" craze of the 1990s. Which, on balance, was a good thing.
7. Sister Fatima - Don McLean Admit it. You know one, maybe two Don McLean songs. Me, too.
8. Reva's House - Los Lobos I mentioned before that then-headbanger San Antonio station KXZL (now classic rocker KZEP) had a playlist that was broad enough to include Robert Cray, which helped make me a fan of his music. They did the same for me with Los Lobos, by spinning a few cuts from "How Will The Wolf Survive?" back in my formative days. In retrospect, I'd put KXZL's playlist up with KACC's today, and that of the late, lamented 101 WNEW's from its glory days of the 70s and 80s. My CD collection says I owe them a lot.
9. For You - Tracy Chapman Admit it. You know one, maybe two Tracy Chapman songs, too. In each case, I'm learning that the rest of the CD is pretty good as well.
10. Land of Canaan - The Indigo Girls I mentioned before that my old Rice crowd circa 1990 was into Michelle Shocked. They were also into the Indigo Girls. Make of that what you will.
I figure I have maybe two more playlists worth of unripped CDs, after which I'll make some new playlists that combine stuff from the existing ones. I never did a Random Ten list from my first playlist, which was most of the stuff that I wanted to be the debut stuff on my iPod. So, like it or not, there'll be more of this silliness on future Fridays.
Yes, I know it's Saturday. I had this drafted earlier, then never got a chance to post it yesterday. Now I am. Without further ado, here are ten more songs from the current playlist:
1. Raina Do Mer (Queen of the Sea) - Susanna Sharpe and the Samba Police. The best samba band ever from Austin, and the only CD I own that's sung mostly in Portuguese. If she doesn't make you want to get up and dance, nothing will.
2. How You Carry On - Marcia Ball. A legend among Texas blues singers. The first outing I went on with Tiffany (this was between the show at the Mucky Duck where we met and our first real date) was a trip to the Houston International Festival to see Marcia Ball on the Texas stage. That will have been ten years ago on April 20. (And they say men don't remember stuff like that.)
3. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo - from the soundtrack to "The Cotton Club". Lousy movie (saw it in the theater with a bunch of college friends), awesome soundtrack. If you've ever wondered what the fuss over Duke Ellington was about, this is a good place to start to learn.
4. Sugar and Spice - The Searchers. This is from the soundtrack to "Good Morning, Vietnam", and it's a Tiffany CD. The reason I bothered to rip this is because unlike some other movies that feature music from this era (*cough* *cough* The Big Chill *cough* *cough*), it's mostly stuff that hasn't been played to death on oldies and classic rock radio stations.
5. Funky Tom's Place - Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows. Old school Chicago-style blues from a guy who has a song called "300 Pounds of Heavenly Joy" in his repertoire. I recall a family friend taping his Big Twist album for me years ago, and being thrilled when I found a CD copy of it later.
6. Love, Sweet Love - Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli. Three Texas blues women together on one CD, the only CD I ever bought after reading a review in the Rice Thresher.
7. Nothin' But A Woman - Robert Cray. Back before 104.5 in San Antonio became pioneering classic rocker KZEP, they were a fairly metalhead station called KXZL. Though they were the place to hear such 80s icons as Dokken and Krokus, their range was wide enough to include bluesmen like Cray and his "Strong Persuader" CD. I've been a fan of Cray's smooth guitar and offbeat humor ever since.
8. Wish That I Could Never Love Again - Feo y Loco. Ah, Feo y Loco. The most gloriously tasteless band that I ever followed around obsessively back when the Mucky Duck cost $3 to get in. This is one of maybe two songs in their canon that can be played for one's parents. It's actually my favorite, and I have Ginger and Michael to thank for salvaging it from Feo's cassette-only first album and burning it to a CD, where it eventually wound up on my iPod. I love technology.
9. Crocodile Rock - The Beach Boys. From a CD of Elton John covers called "Two Rooms". You can say what you want about Sir Elton and his music (I like it - sue me), but you have to admit that the Beach Boys are the perfect band to cover this baby.
10. The Iron Man - The Chieftains. It's the Chieftains. What more do you need to know?
Well, I enjoyed my experimental playlist, and will certainly put a fair amount of it higher up in the rotation for the future, but all good things must come to an end, and I've still got a bunch of CDs to go. On to the next playlist, where the following songs came up on first play:
1. Nil Por Mi Punados Del Oro - The Mollys. A truly eclectic mix of Irish and Mexican folk music, done in a rollicking and lively style. Sadly, as noted on their cofounder's homepage, they disbanded in 2003. You had to hear them to believe them, and I'm just glad I got to see them live at the Mucky Duck as often as I did.
2. Callin' In Sick - Weird Al Yankovic. Surely by now you must have pegged me as a Weird Al fan, right?
3. I Can't Tame Wild Women - Hot Club of Cowtown. Another great band that has since split up, this Western Swing trio's motto was "In Bob Wills We Trust". I can't argue with that.
4. The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish - from the soundtrack to "For the Boys". A little-known movie about a couple of USO-tour performers, its soundtrack is one half 1940s swing, one half Bette Midler schmaltz. This is from the good half.
5. Harbor - Vienna Teng. Another Priscilla song, and while it's made-for-Sunny 99 stuff, I'll freely admit that Teng has a gorgeous voice, and that makes up for it.
6. How Far To The Water - Eddie From Ohio. I've worn a groove in half of my EFO CDs and largely not played the others, partly because the two double live CDs that I do play have a good sampling of the material on these disks. Time to get myself more familiar with the back catalog.
7. Pico de Gallo - Trout Fishing In America. Come on, people, sing it with me!
Pico de gallo
You ought to give it a try, oh
Even if you're from Ohio
It'll get you by, oh
Don't get it in your eye, oh
Unless you want to cry, oh
So come on, don't be shy, oh
Have some pico de gallo!
8. Let's Spend The Night Together - Muddy Waters. I have two Muddy Waters CDs, one an acoustic folk blues disc, the other called "Electric Mud". Both were purchased in a futile attempt to get the version of "Mannish Boy" that I recall from the movie "Risky Business". No, it never occurred to me to just buy the soundtrack. All things considered, I'd say this approach worked out better anyway.
9. St. Louis Blues March - Glenn Miller. Here's the secret to making a kid a Glenn Miller fan for life: Hand him a saxophone in middle school, and point him in the direction of the jazz band. This is a rare song among Miller's canonical works that I've not personally played in one form or another.
10. Flight of the Passing Fancy - Squirrel Nut Zippers. For some reason, the opening riff of this song sounds like a mashup of "Sing Sing Sing" and "Beer Barrell Polka" to me. And I consider that a feature, not a bug.
As always, feel free to mock my musical quirks in the comments.
I have confessed on this space before to having been a Stevens and Pruett fan from the good old days of 101 KLOL. I still think the decline and fall of that station can be traced to the breakup of their longstanding morning duo. I've moved on, and maybe I wouldn't find them as amusing today as I did when I was a shallow twentysomething single guy - and Lord knows I wouldn't let Olivia listen to them as we drive to preschool - but I do miss them from the scene.
Well, thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can hear these guys again. According to an email I received yesterday, they appeared as guests on the Internet radio station DXS Radio. Quoting from the email:
Their [last] Wednesday on-air "talk fest" was a hilarious, 45-minute trip down memory lane. They talked about being partners since the early seventies, the insanity behind the scenes at the Stevens & Pruett Show, the glory days of KLOL and of course, how commercial radio has changed over the past five years or so.