Cristy, William, Heather Rose, & Tony Money gather to present and discuss some of the greatest songs recorded by nonexistent bands, from Ruben and the Jets to Spinal Tap to the Dukes of Stratosphear. Although we overflow the hour, we can’t get to everything, nor would we want to, so we also present a Rock and Roll Imaginary Hall of Fame. Of sorts. Great fun. Listen here.
APPA
Cristy! I knew that was you calling as soon as I heard the gloomy dissonance of Scott Walker!
Here are some original plagiarized* ringtones, created by William for his personal use. You either get it or you don’t. Download! Enjoy!
* “Sampled.” Fair use?
DJ Reggaetone and I attempt to fit 3/4 waves of ska into two hours, replete with factoids, banter, and technical glitches. Dreaming of a black and white Christmas. We field requests via telephone, facebook, and cell, and wander into the treacherous cul-de-sacs of bands we’ve never heard but which have funny names, one of the features of third-wave ska. Listen and skank.
For the holiday season, we bring you the second installment of Songs About Bad Parties. Get in the spirit, download, listen, and sulk in the corner.
This party just took a turn for the douche.
As Rock Genre Directors at WEFT 90.1 FM, once a month we would set about opening our mail, criticizing the type treatment used by the mostly micro-label CDs we received, and digging for buried musical treasure. All on the air, with envelopes ripping and bubble wrap popping. And lots of playing songs that were new to us, even if they might be stale to others.
Send your CD to Rock Geek Enterprises, P.O.Box 91, Urbana IL 61803.
28 February 2009: Vampire Weekend, Davis Schneiderman, Robyn Hitchcock, &c.
20 June 2009: Martin Newell, The Bird and the Bee, Robyn Hitchcock, &c.
1 August 2009: Common Loon, Paul Kotheimer, &c.
19 September 2009: Phoenix, Electric Tickle Machine, Apples in Stereo, Vivian Girls, &c.
15 January 2010: Surprises both fresh and rancid.
12 April 2010: Broken Bells, Gorillaz, MC Frontalot, &c.
14 June 2010: Dead Weather, Seth Augustus, Karen Elson, &c.
19 July 2010: Wolf Parade, Hot Hot Heat, Black Keys, Sadies, Dark Night of the Soul, &c.
16 August 2010: An attempt to work through the entire alphabet: new releases by bands starting with letters A—Z…
30 August 2010: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Wavves, Aloe Blacc, &c.
20 September 2010: Of Montreal, Philip Selway, &c.
18 October 2010: Janelle Monae! (Followed by a live performance by Community College on the WEFT Sessions)
15 November 2010: Decemberists, and what else do you need, really?
13 December 2010: John Steinbacher joins William while Cristy takes a holiday
17 January 2011: with Todd Hunter
7 March 2011: Chain and the Gang, Bare Wires, &c. Wow.
18 April 2011: Dopestylevsky, Mammals of Zod, Paul Kotheimer, Gary Heidt, Shipbuilding Company, Deerhoof, &c.
6 June 2011: Raphael Saadiq, Chad VanGaalen, &c.
20 June 2011: Fist of Kindness, Five-Eight, Wombats, the Head, Hammer No More the Fingers, &c.
18 July 2011: Bloc Party, Mike Watt, &c.
22 August 2o11: Rome, Material Issue, &c.
12 December 2011: We were late and called in to ask a baby boomer to start our show, with predictable results. Thanks, Mick.
23 January 2012: They Might Be Giants, The Asteroid Galaxy Tour, &c.
The Count.
We keep keeping on with this theme—songs named after numbers in numeric order—which has the two problems of being endless and progressively more difficult. Like life, only endless. Here we climb from 28-52.
Previous shows in this series:
On 28 June 2010 Cristy and William were joined by guest host percussionist and jazz scholar Jason Finkelman, who took us on a tour of the wild, sophisticated borderland of jazz and rock. Two hours of this left us pretty much speechless.
On June 21, abetted by the crew of Rock Geek F.M., DJ “Two Tone” Tony Money birthed his brainchild, “Out of Their Element,” in which we identified instances where bands attempted to create music in styles that they were not suited for. Such as Brian Wilson’s rap track.
This show felt like it quickly disintegrated into total, wanton anarchy.
We explore what psychedelic music might actually mean, since music is not literally a drug. This exploration leads us off genre, out of the 1960s, and into unexpected and delicious territory. A long strange trip, online to expand your ears.
Cristy’s ultra-cute cybergreen VW new beetle suffered another super-cute battery failure while we were filling the tank on the way to the station.
As a result we arrived out of sorts and fell back on a strategy we had not resorted to before: playing songs we really, really like.
Isn’t that what freestyle rock radio by passionate humans should be about?
Nah.
If that were so, we’d play the same stuff every month.
But it took the edge off a stressful night. Listen, enjoy almost as much as we did, dancing in the studio.
Check engine light is on, guys.
