1pm:

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

2pm:

(or download , )

Yet more thanksgiving weekend radio. My only goal was to babble less than the end of yesterday’s session. Mission accomplished.

I was also excited to play the entire Metropolis Suite 1 from Janelle Monae and it sounded great. Also fun was ending off with a “Tight Pants In Canada” set, given that Kristin wasn’t going to be there for her usual fantastic 3-5 show. Rob Linn who was covering for Kristin then followed that up with “Tight Pants in Detroit (and Japan)”.

Playlist.

A guy called in to check the spelling of Ted Leo. Yesterday someone made the same call for Jean Leloup. I’ve made that call myself a few times, I love being on the receiving end. Campus radio has been so central to my experience of music for so many years, it feels right to be giving back.

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True fact: on the way to the radio station I remembered I was out of rum. So I went into the Beer Depot and asked for a pint. It’s taken a long time to get out of the habit of asking for a mickey. That may be the first time I remembered without stumbling over it.

So yeah, doing that show was incredibly indulgent. I was genuinely confused about being in my right mind, and doing radio. Normally I get into the studio after a few hours sleep and I start at six. Today I started clear headed and it felt distinctly strange, like I should go out into the parking lot and smoke a bunch of cigarettes and bang my head against a rock for a while to get into the right headspace. But it was fun. As a side benefit, I may, for the first time, be sick of talking about Canada.

Here’s the playlist.

And here’s the audio:

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Two hours really wasn’t enough. I’ve got a bunch of stuff to play tomorrow, but I’ll be mixing it up with some more general open format.

errata: Winnipeg is not the “City of Champions”. That dubious claim belongs to Edmonton. Wrong city, wrong damn province even.

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In a few hours I’m gonna do that Canadian music show. I’ll be playing Log Driver’s Waltz (of course), straight from Youtube, so I’m posting it here so I can find it. And now, so can you!

Bonus action: the NFB’s version of the Blackfly Song with Wade Hemsworth. Ahhhhhhhh….. NFB……. what ever happened to that?

And here’s a song that I couldn’t find a playable-quality version of, so I’m gonna have to play a cover:

It’s Monday morning, post-show, and I’m already putting together next week’s show. Requests for the Protomen and the Akira soundtrack are now getting sorted out. Not to mention a tonne of suggestions that have come in for the end of the week. Indeed, in case you somehow missed the announcement,

This Thursday and Friday
TWO SHOWS* ONE SHOW ONLY

It’s the Resurrection of 2-4s and Mickeys
wcbn’s own Canadian music and culture show
1-3pm both days, with DJ Hugonaut, Native of the North

*I’m cutting it down to one show, it was getting out of hand preparing for it and hey, this is a school week. But it’s cool that my show was getting out of hand (always escalate).

So get ready for that. I was just going to do Thursday but I’ve got music ideas flooding in from the US, Canada, Korea, you name it. The Reverend Andrew has threatened to drop in with some of his own favourite Canadiana. It’s the Special Relationship, made even Specialer.

OK, today’s music:

Playlist.

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Part three (download):

ps. I’m really digging this compilation of international surf/mexicali sounding instrumental rock numbers, that I played a couple of tunes from. I know nothing about it, except it rulez.

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Today’s radio playlist here.

Although the actual material was perhaps more disco-related than purist uncut disco in the traditional vein, that was probably the most disco-ish show I will ever play. And yes, it was fun.

Also fun was giving away tickets. Another DJ first for me. I think that guy must have employed the finger-hovering-over-the-last-number while waiting for the DJ to stop talking method. Which worked, and I wish I had a car and free tickets to the Dap-Kings.

Here’s DJ Hugonaut’s tip of the week for the aspiring college disc jockey: if you’ve got something playing in the background while you talk through a set break, turn that down at the end of the break, but don’t turn it off yet. That way, when you cue up the next track and it turns out to be the wrong one, you can just turn the background music back up, which will cover the dead air while you hunt desperately for the track you actually wanted to play. This I learned today. Twice.

Also, don’t be afraid of theme sets. They induce requests. Also, play that Tarwater song that sounds like David Slyvian doing his best to do electro. That’s kind of cool. Also, play every single song on the Nighthawks at the Diner album from Tom Waits.

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Started off strong, drifted into randomness and powered in to a big half hour finale of uptempo beats and poignant dead air. Right on. A lot of phone action (and I’ve even got some requests on the hook for next week). I only wish the speakers went even louder. We need an ’11’ setting, truly.

Playlist,

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Part three (download):

.

Steve Miller > Ella Fitzgerald > Avalanches > Mills Brothers > Lucinda Williams > Bo Diddley > Cherry Poppin Daddies. Yes. I was a little unsure about the Lucinda Williams, but then I got a call from someone who really wanted to know where to get the track. Yes.

And yeah, lots of dead air and unplanned overdubs in towards the end but all genius is flawed.

I think I’m serious about getting Crazy by Neu! on as the theme track for the show. I heard it for the first time last week and I’ve barely been able to stop listening to it.

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From Luis Vasquez, a pair of training and recruitment videos for WCBN, circa 1989. I guess we sloughed off the commercial carrier-current station (the thinly veiled derision of the narrators for their “popular music format” is pretty funny). Other than that, not much has changed I think.

I’m every bit as brainfried now as I was 7 hours ago when I started doing radio, so I’ll keep this to the basic points:

Playlist.

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Part three (download):

audio.

The highlight for me was without a doubt “Open All Night” from the Bruce. Maybe braindeath is a good place to be in for music immersion. I found it immersive. I was also singing along pretty loud to “One Monkey” by Gillian Welch. And the Boards of Canada sounded great. And so did everything. I love this music stuff.

I haven’t had a chance to double check the back-audio, somebody let me know if any of those are broken.

And thanks to the guy who called in asking if that was my regular slot. It is and I am here to serve.

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Which implies they once were I suppose. Cole Porter era I guess.

Playlist,

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Part three (download):

audio.

A Very Special Episode this week, starring out-of-towner Megan at the board. No visit to Ann Arbor is complete without DJing at WCBN. I should hire touts to bring tourists down, charge admission and make some money off the deal. Megan reports the week’s highlight was “Kiss the Girl” into “Let’s Talk about Sex”. I have to admit, that was pretty good. Clearly Megan understands the whole campus radio gestalt.

I actually felt like the show went pretty well this week. No major screwups. Lots of music got turned up to 11 in the booth. I was particulary grooving on the Mike Doughty (who knew it was meant to be played so loud?), the Nina Simone, and playing the Mojo Nixon track off the Don Henley cover. Take that Don Henley. You’re out of the band. Sting too.

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Playlist, audio hour

Part one (download):

Part two (download):

Part three (download):

.

I think I succeeded in talking less this week. Which is good, since I woke up even less than usually cogent. And not hard, since I sure as hell talk a lot.

Fun times layering the Utah Phillips and instrumental tracks, should be straightforward enough of course but the first time I’ve tried it much live on air. The trick is getting the levels right so the vocals come through without straining, and it’s somehow tricky to gauge that from the board monitor. Utah Phillips has emerged as the number one thing I play, I don’t mean to do that but there’s so much good Utah material that it’s hard not to. And it’s so good. Utah is one of my heroes, he’s had such a rich life, done so much, seen so much, known so much, worked so hard to give it all back. Feels good to help draw him into the flow in some small way, like he works to bring his elders into the flow.

The station is down one CD deck and that adds enough busy work moving CDs around to cut into the time I can sit back and listen, so maybe the reason Fur Immer was the standout for me today was just that’s it’s better than 10 minutes long, so I had to a chance to hear it. Good song though. Up the Wolves from the Mountain Goats also sounded particularly good on my end, but I understand that may just be me. I love that the song catalog at themountaingoats.net runs to 497 tracks. How do we do it? Volume!

Next week I think I’ve got a guest DJ coming in to assist with revolutionary hiphop and show tunes, but we’ll see about the latter.

Oh yeah, and I always wondered if sometimes, when people call in requests to radio shows and the station doesn’t have the song, if DJs just go ahead and p2p it. Yep.

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