Best. Damn. Music. Show. Ever. Period!

Originally from my Tumblr blog 'Tucker's Tertiary' 

If you are interested in Indie music (or alternative, Punk, proto-punk or what ever other tag you declare your music), I highly recommend listening to The Big Take Over Magazine’s Radio Show this week and next!

Actually you should listen every week and subscribe to the best music magazine ever, yes ever, created. The magazine has been dedicated to the indie music scene for over 30 years with great writing, interviews and reviews of bands you only see there first.

Back to the shows - it is Jack Rabid’s (the publisher of BTO) year in review shows - in two Parts! How could I have missed so much good music?!

The Magazine - http://www.bigtakeover.com
The Radio Show - http://www.breakthruradio.com/#/post/?blog=21&post=1081

 

Make Music not AutoTune porn

Forgive me for this rare expletive laced first line. What the fark is it with auto tuned voices being considered
the young hip sound?  Would the inventor of this heinous product please stand up and into an open field to  be properly dispatched by a firing squad? 

Now, do not get me wrong, I am no musical purist pole sitting up on an ivory column denigrating everything but my own preferred genre, nor is this a screed against today’s youth culture.

I dove in head first to the late 80’s synth sound revolution that dispensed with natural instruments. I am also an obsessed fan of Raymond Scott, the 1940’s & 50’s jazz musician who used his hand-built mechanical synthesisers and relay based sequencers to create new, and to some -bizarre, sounds.  


To be hone st vocal treatments of pop and not so pop stars has been a common practice since Les Paul first stacked recording heads and created multi-track and overdubbing. The process was subtle though, a minor tweak to vocals that could match the recording at live events. In this respect I see the value of auto tune in the same vein as outboard gear based on the work of Joe Meek. Similar to Raymond Scott, Joe Meek created his own equipment to process recordings to bring out new dimensions of the emerging rock music scene. 

So, this experimentation and stereotypical overuse is nothing new but there is a greater abuse occurring with auto tune, something  I am calling it  the gallop effect.  

Cindy Gallop is a brand marketing  leader who has also developed several websites including the micro
 action sites “If I Ran the World” and “Make Love Not Porn”.  The latter is an attempt to upend the deleterious effects of porn as sex ed on the under 25 crowd, where acts like ‘the money shot’ are  perceived to be normal and ‘whats supposed to happen’ by both genders. To be clear Ms Gallop’s screed is not anti porn, far from it. What it does fight is a grievous ignorance of the basic facts of sex akin to what 40’s and 50’s mass culture taught (or lacked to tell) their children and what Kinsey railed against - setting in motion a revolution. That cultural shift of openness and honesty eventually led us to a cultural confusion based on a tsunami of readily available media but no grounding in human sexuality from sex ed classes and more importantly parental honesty.

 

The shift in perception that abuse of tools like the now dreaded auto tune (and adult films) begin to alter what characteristics we find to be the height of beauty. Whether  it is the cosmetically enhanced starlets of porn or the equally Frankenstein vocals, the ubiquity overwhelms our frame of reference and imperfections become magnified. When nothing but perceived perfection is acceptable, what happens when you encounter an actual human voice?

Which is why I will still take a warble prone alt-punk singer whose voice carries authentic character over the vocal equivalent of the movie LOOKER’s main foil Cindy, the 1980’s   predecessor to S1m0ne, where perfection has deadly results.  

Of course there is one use of  this device that may just save humanity- Auto Tune the news, Bill and Ted should be so influential. 

 

 

 

 

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Terrestrial Radio is Dead, Long Live Terrestrial Radio- online at least

 

I am a true radio geek. I have a very special place in my heart for the modus operandi sound of terrestrial radio.  Similar to the vinyl-phile who loves, nay craves, the hiss and pop of records, I find a comfort in the off air sounds of radio.

I have at times railed against the Clear Channel-ization of radio and promoted the full migration to online listening; I still ‘tune into’ Radio IO, Pandora and even Last.fm more often than off air. Yet I cannot completely extricate myself from terrestrial radios grip.  I was nurtured with it as if mother’s milk to my ears and it provided the final blow to my teen angst – see my “Be In My Broadcast”

I have a few choice stations that I tune into regularly which fit my very strict sense of retro-modern radio, by which I mean stations that maintain an old school radio aura but do not live in the past - (admittedly available online).  For brevities sake I am only listing the stations which constantly open my ears and provide me with a mix of music – from the expected to evocative. 

  Well, that and they all sound great on my home system, car radio and my beloved personally rebuilt 1958 Grundig’s paper speakers.

 

WNYU 89.1 FM :

New York University Radio- There is a lot going on at WNYU with just a many shows as genres one would encounter walking two blocks on St. Marks place in the east village. I fell head over heels for the New Afternoon Show nearly 20 years ago and still listen at least once a week now.  Playing historical true alternative music to the newest acts and underground genres it is a thrilling and challenging listening experience. It was the first place I heard of ‘the seattle sound’ movement back in the late 80’s –(Mudhoney or Mother Love Bone anyone?)  WNYU is an actual college training radio station so the DJ’s are not always quite polished- but that is part of the raw appeal.  WNYU broadcasts from 4pm to 10:30pm Monday through Friday.

WFMU 91.1 FM:

 The seminal free-form radio where shows can range from straight out rock n’ roll to drag racing themed rock a’ billy or thirties cigarette ads.  Every day, every show can inspire and confound you. The station is a true original.

WFDU 89.1 FM:

Honestly I do not know much about the rest of the stations broadcasts, but  Ghosty’s ‘That Modern Rock Show’  show kicks ass.  Playing Old and new alterna-punk, unique interviews and some truly odd ball fare.   His knowledge of music alternative/punk/new wave history, discographies and ephemera is remarkable.  He is the Phil Schaap of modern rock.  The observant reader will notice that WFDU occupies the same frequency set as WNYU.  WFDU only operates from 12am to 3:45pm on Weekdays and on weekends.

WXPK 107.1:

The peak is not one of those radio stations I would naturally gravitate to as it runs the fine line between 'Adult Contemporary' and a true music lover’s station.  I was convinced to take a listen and look at their website by my wife and I thank her all the time for keeping on me.  The Peak plays new music- yes actual new music – and a great mix of rock, blues, dance some pop 40, and live in-studio performances. The stations website is a treat! They feature active playlists which link to video or audio tracks, band sites, live show info and more. I am in love with a mainstream radio station- and proud to admit it.

WKCR 89.9 FM:

The radio station of Columbia University and the single greatest Jazz station on earth. While they play classical, opera, hilly billy country and the music of world cultures. But the Jazz, ah this is just pure heaven.  I listen every morning to Phil Schapps Bridflight – digging Coltrane and the encyclopedic knowledge of be-bop and jazz records Mr. Schapp possesses. I have listened to interviews which the Jazz greats of yore where he corrects them on a timeline placement or a band member who played a show or on an album.  The most common response, after a pause of consideration, is usually a ‘…well you would know better than me, I often wonder if you were there’.

WNYC/NPR 93.9: 

 I would be rightly admonished  if I did not mention WNYC and NPR music. From Sound Check, Spinning on Air, All Songs Considered and the fantastic NPR music site, I listen for hours on end.  The Shows feature new acts, thought provoking interviews, live in studio sessions and album first listens –(usually until the albums actual release date). WNYC is a truly remarkable music resource for the fan of any musical genre – a great deal of classical and opera as well. I have begun to dig some Opera lately, mostly the arias and solos but I have listened to a few ‘full’ production on the NPR site. 

Do youk know of a station that may just save Terrestrial Radio? let me know.

Updated- 5.25

While I do not listen to Sport Radio that often I am duly enamored with Steve Somers – The schmooze- on WFAN.  His opening monologues are erudite, cultural and most of all require you to be up to date on the latest sports, politics, news and cultural  talking points.

I was able to find a Memorial Day monologue posted on YouTube but you should check for his schedule.  He and his callers are a treat.

The Birth of Modern Music, The Value of History- a mini tribute to Raymond Scott

Our time is one  of daily paradigm changes  in  the technological, cultural and philosophical  arenas, where today’s internet superstar product is granted 5 minutes of fame only to be usurped at minute 4.5- often by the same creator or venture capitalist.  Despite the contributions to the revolution most of these individual –(and companies)- have made, they are destined to be remembered by only a few associates or researchers of the arcane.

I have been fortunate to have had many mentors –direct and incidental- who helped create or were involved from the onset in the early days of multi-image, AV and music recording.  Most of their names would be unknown or, perhaps, considered irrelevant to current installers, content creators or even heads of companies in the industry, yet they practice or build on the architecture and processes that these folks established.  I was also fortunate to have teachers in trade school who thought it was of great importance to at least expose us some of the history of the art and technology we were learning to handle.   While much of the education in the glory of my ‘forbearers’ was somewhat erudite, I did get  hands on training on split line RCA boards, refurbishing a Mellotron and the odd art of multiple projector slide shows. Much in the fashion of car restorers or mechanical archivist I was granted the oral history and hands on practical from these guys.    

One of the many quirky personalities and remarkable innovators I discovered by association (and have loved to read about and explore his work to this day) is Raymond Scott.  In a similar vein to the just as unique and visionary Joe Meek, Scott had a special relationship with music that helped change it forever. In fact he should be as well known as Les Paul for his contributions to music and the AV industry in general.  Jazz musician, inventor of the sequencer and the person nearly every sound a vending machine, ATM or ring tone makes can trace its roots back to, in one way or another.

 

 

Like Alan Turing, Raymond Scott has posthumously developed a cult following for his remarkable insight and contributions. Turning may have saved the world and Scott may just have saved music. There are a number sites –which I list below – dedicated to the work and times of Raymond Scott, if you want a one example proof of his influence- chew on this.  Mr. Scott had in his employ for some time a young electronics maven who he set to work helping finish and build circuits for his ' Electronium; that young man was none other than Bob Moog.

 Even ‘dead’ technology has something to teach and knowing where things came from provides fodder for innovation and creative thinking.  Are you teaching this information to your young wire guys and installers?  Do you, or they, know about UNIVAC? Or why we call it a ‘ Bug’ when code is erratic?

 I highly suggest finding the video collection of the ‘Connections’ series hosted by James Burke whose Scientific American essays the shows are based on.  They may not answer the previous questions but it will start you on a path to thinking about ‘just how did we wind up doing it this way’ or ‘how anyone ever thought to do that!’

The past is not dead, we live it every day, we just have to where to look.

I have linked key words in the post  with links, but i have been often asked to send the group via email. 

Raymond Scott website: http://www.raymondscott.com/

Raymond Scott synopsis:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Scott

Robert Moog overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moog

Joe Meek: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=joe+meek&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&fp=4bd1efb53b2bf9c5

Alan Turing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

UNIVAC http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/UNIVAC.Weston.html

The Electronium and Clavivox    http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=Electronium&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&start=0&social=false

James Burke- Connections: http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=james+burke+connections&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=DBSUS--IBZC1tgeItvDUCg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CC8QqwQwAw#

Mellotron  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR6D1ZH2CMk