Keep on keeping on

This week I did my radio show Thursday evening instead of Sunday morning and it was the most interesting one I’ve done yet. Four calls total. The first was a guy asking about an advance release that I had played a song from, and when I told him that the album wasn’t out yet he asked me “where’d you get it then?” I didn’t really want to tell him “leaked on the Internet” so I just said that radio stations get advance copies and that was that. It’s true that we do and I had actually forgotten that I had seen a copy of the same CD around weeks earlier. Like so many others it disappeared and is probably in some box somewhere or got nicked by a DJ.

Two other calls were standard “what’s that song?” which are good and then the fourth was just weird. I’m experimenting with the whole “showing some personality on the radio” thing so I said a bit on the air about finals and saying that I had some the next morning (which I did) and that was that. Immediately after I got a call from some guy who seemed to think I was freaked out about the finals or something. He started off by asking me if I was listening, then rambled on about “joining us” and “it will all be okay” and so on and I really didn’t say anything since I was trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. I think it was an older guy but I’m not sure. In any case I thought it was funny that he was listening to the stuff I was putting on instead of crazy old man music.
Other than that the show was remarkably free of issues. I hope I can get a similar timeslot since I like getting some feedback and knowing that somebody is listening.

Here’s some stuff that I liked from this week:

• “Paul Simon” – The Russian Futurists: “Wall of sound” lots going on type music that I really dig. His album Our Thickness is great and I find it amazing that he does it all by himself.
• “Rough Gem” – Islands: Some hot hot plucking and flute action going on here. I guess this band is two thirds of the Unicorns, a band I never really checked but which I may have to now.
• “Steady As She Goes” – The Raconteurs: Sounding kinda like the White Stripes but not, starring Jack White and some other guys. The way Jack sings “when you have completed what you thought had to do” with a little auditory smirk is just super.
• “If Only The Moon Were Up” – Field Music: Enjoyably British with some horns, start-stop guitars, and all manner of other instruments. Plus you can’t beat a song with the lyrics “if only the moon were up, I’d be trying to find my shoes”. I need to spend some quality time with the rest of their album.
• “Hold On” – Magnet: More plucky goodness, this time with a whispering pretty boy type. But it also has this alien noise and he raises his voice and it picks up and hey hold on okay! Ha ha, optimism.

That’s it, the rest sucked. Just kidding.