Jerry Garcia & David Grisman "Friend Of The Devil"

I played this on the air once, and said that it was "from 1997."

I had a Deadhead call and yell at me.

"Jerry DIED in 1995!  It can't be from 1997."

So, to clarify, for this impassioned gentleman . . . the album "Live On Letterman" was released in 1997.  The performance on that disc is from a television appearance in 1993, while Mr. Garcia (I didn't know him well enough to call him by his first name) was decidedly alive.

For someone who knows waaay more about The Dead than I do, and can talk about it properly, check out a new episode of Shakedown Stream.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Joseph Arthur "Walk On The Wild Side"

A minor footnote to the announcement that David Letterman is retiring, was that Mike Mills of R.E.M. fame, broke the story.

He was part of the band for the scheduled musical guest that night, Joseph Arthur, so he was at the afternoon taping, and tweeted the news.

Joseph Arthur was on, because he has recently released a cover of "Walk On The Wild Side."  Arthur was a friend of Reed's, and recorded this reworking, as a tribute to his late friend.

See the Letterman performance below, which includes Mike Mills, and Peter Buck of R.E.M.


See the video on Youtube.

Warren Zevon "Hit Somebody"

It may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but if you were to ask me who has influenced me most as a Radio Announcer, the answer would not be a name that would seem obvious. 

I can certainly say I loved and listened intently to folks like Casey Kasem and WBCN's Charles Laquidara and Mark Parenteau when I was a kid.

But really, the person I have idolized the most, as a broadcaster, is David Letterman.

Now, I have never thought of myself as anything like (and certainly not equal-to) Letterman, in the ways that you perhaps appreciate Dave.

I was never trying to replicate his sense of humor, or his quick wit, or his wonderful grasp of irony, or his delightful snarkiness.  I do love all those things about him, as a fan.

But as a broadcaster, I've always paid close attention to the way that Letterman communicates information, the way he simply (or sometimes, complicatedly) tells a story.

Take the way he announced his retirement on his show last night.

He did what he does most every night on the program.  After the monologue, he heads to his desk and will tell a story, often with a personal aspect.  I don't suspect that Dave is a racounteur, holding court with friends and telling endless stories.  But we he does these direct-to-the-camera-and-audience moments, he is masterful at getting at the heart of the matter.

So he opens with some facts about how many shows he's done, and then he segues into a seemingly unrelated yarn about how he spent an entire day trying to identify a bird picture.  And just when it appears that this is a simply shaggy dog story, you realize that it actually boldly underscores his point, that it is time for him to retire.

This is what I aspire to every day.  Can I tell stories on the radio (and actually, on this blog too) that are engaging, even if they seem a bit shaggy, but that ultimately circle around to a clear, relatable point?  I'll never be as good as Letterman, but setting the bar high is not such a bad thing.

The other, minor thing I learned from Letterman, is how to carefully, but clearly, show your passion.

Letterman must treat each guest as important.  The show simply wouldn't work if he wasn't displaying enthusiasm for each and every guest.

And that is kind of how I approach being on the radio.  I don't love each and every song I play, equally.  But I recognize that each and every song is somebody's favorite.  And I display enthusiasm of all songs with that in mind.

That being said, you can tell when Dave is passionate about a guest, particularly the musical guests.  You can see it in the early days when R.E.M. came on, or in the late 90s when the Foo Fighters were guest, or recently when Jason Isbell appears.  He'll give just a little bit extra to the introduction, or greet the band after the song with energy that lets the viewer know just how engaged he was.

I too have certain artists that I feel passionately about, and yes, I can let that sneak through in the way I talk about certain artists, hopefully without lessening the importantance of other folks we play.

And when you've set the audience expectation that you, as the host, have your special passions, the audience will respect those occasions where, when the moment is really right, you dive into a personal obsession. 

Warren Zevon wasn't such a major artist that a network television show would normally devote a whole hour to him.  But he was a major artist to David Letterman, and Dave's passion for Zevon allowed the netork door to be open for an hour.  It was some pretty great television.

I've learned a lot from Dave.  And I'm grateful for the things I've been able to take away, to make me a better air talent.

So, Mr Letterman, as you yourself once said to Johnny Carson, "Thanks for my career."


Did you know Dave is on a Warren Zevon recording?  Listen for him on "Hit Somebody."


Hear the song on Youtube.


The retirement announcement on Youtube.


See Warren Zevon on Letterman on Youtube.

Candi Staton "I Ain't Easy To Love"

Candi Staton had a strange path to a mainstream comeback.

Her vocals from her 1971 song "He Called Me Baby" were sampled in 2009 for the One Eskimo hit "Kandi."

And with that attention, she's poised for a more traditional-style comeback---an album of new recordings, featuring some young supporters, including John Paul White of The Civil Wars and Jason Isbell.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Jason Isbell "Stockholm"

You know what a good sign is, when it comes to me liking a song?  When I can't choose a lyric.

One of Barbara Dacey's behind the scenes jobs at MVY, is to post the Lyric Of The Day.  You can see it at the top of the main page of our website.

While she's on vacation, I am doing the lyric posting.  I'd had "Stockholm" stuck in my head for a couple of days, and thought I'd grab a lyric from there.

I literally spent 15 minutes trying to narrow it down.  It's a 4 minute song!

But there are so many great lines, and turns of phrases, and descriptions here.  It was hard to pick.

I never disliked Jason Isbell, but I had never had one of his songs grab me and show me his genius until now.

You can see the lyrics here.

And watch the video below to the end?  Letterman is clearly a HUGE fan.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See Isbell on Letterman on Youtube.

Father John Misty "Only Son Of The Ladies Man"

Speaking of me inadvertently saying something unnecessarily stupid resulting in more work for me . . .

Somewhere along the line I thought it would be a great idea for mvy to have a "station blog."  Something that was less personally focused than this blog (or the ones Jess and Jer Bear write) and was instead dedicated to the things going on programming-wise.

Everyone thought it was a great idea.

So guess who's writing it most days . . .

But it suddenly became more than worth it, the moment I found video below.

See, I was putting together some posts to preview artists coming to Newport Folk Fest 2013, and when I got around to writing a post for Father John Misty I knew I wanted to find the video of him singing "Only Son Of The Ladies Man" when he appeared on David Letterman.

As I recalled, his performance was so sexy, if I were a woman I'd be afraid it would impregnate me.

As Youtube is wont to do, it put some interesting FJM-related links up next to the Letterman performance, and so I thought I'd check out one of the interviews.

Within the first few seconds, I nearly turned it off as you could see pretty early on that this interviewer was going to perform an ironic interview.  (Or is that an "ironic" interview?  Or should "ironic" be italicized?  I'm not detached enough to know.)  But I kept watching, because J Tillman (FJM's real name) was giving thoughtful, funny answers, while being sincere instead of ironic.

I won't say anymore, other than to implore you to watch this video, as I found myself crying laughing by the end.  All credit to the interviewer, who rolls with the interview as it spins from a contrived start to realness that's the exact opposite of ironic.

Enjoy!


(The interview is NSFW)


Hear "Only Son Of The Ladies Man" on Youtube.


Hear the hilarious interview on Youtube.

Lulu & The Lampshades "You're Gonna Miss Me"

My wife, who teaches at an elementary school, had been out late the previous night.

The students and teachers had put on a talent show, and she'd attended to show support.  The next morning, she was talking about how 3 different groups of kids did "the cups song" thing.

What is "the cups song" thing?

Instead of answering me, she got a plastic cup out of the cupboard and went off to her computer.

She had a vague memory of how to do the cup thing, but needed to bring up a Youtube video, to re-train herself.

With just a little bit of practice, it all came back to her.  Here she is, accompanied by my son and a bowl of pasta.


See it on Youtube.

What the heck is that, and why are kids doing it?

Well, you can watch this appearance on David Letterman by actress Anna Kendrick, but the short version is this:  Kendrick had learned to do the cup trick from a viral video, and when the folks who were making the movie "Pitch Perfect" saw her do it, they wrote it into the movie.


See the Letterman interview on Youtube.

So if your kids know "the cups song" thing it's probably from seeing "Pitch Perfect" and then Googling this viral video, that Kendrick had studied.


See the viral video on Youtube.

But that doesn't explain how my wife knew how to do it.  She hadn't seen "Pitch Perfect," and wasn't aware of the song.

"How do you know the routine?"

She was a bit sheepish.

"It's from a drinking game.  We used to do this in college.  When you get to the last step, you send the cup to the person on your right.  If you mess up the routine, you drink."

A drinking game, of course.  Now appropriated by grade schoolers everywhere.

Next talent show?  Quarters!


PS.  One more fun version:

See the viral video on Youtube.

Matthew Sweet "Do Ya"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Continuing yesterday's 90s Pop Nostalgia . . . There was this weird outburst in the 90s, when Saturday Night Live and David Letterman and some other late night shows decided to raid their archives and put out CDs.  For whatever reason, most did not go beyond a Volume 1.

This track is particularly awesome, since it wasn't part of a broadcast episode of Conan O'Brien.  The track was recorded during the afternoon's soundcheck, and was included on the Late Night CD.

Matthew Sweet doing The Move (ELO) . . . awesome.  Knowing this is live (sans any studio trickery) really puts the point on what a great and unique voice he has.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.
 

Ben Lee "Catch My Disease"

You know that old Chaos theory idea . . . a butterfly flaps its wings and starts off a chain reaction that ends up with a hurricane hitting the East Coast?

It's cool to see little things have a big effect.

I was familiar with Ben Lee from my modern rock show at my old station, where we played "I Wish I Was Him" and "Pop Queen."

When his "Awake Is The New Sleep" record arrived I was happy to see that he was on New West, a small but solid label, known for promoting quality artists.

New West has folks like Steve Earle and John Hiatt and The Old 97s---bands that will never sell a million records, but will always sell thousands.

But how would a less familiar name like Ben Lee fare? How could a smaller label have major promotional muscle?

Those thoughts crossed my mind in the flap of a butterfly's wing, Barbara played "Catch My Disease" on What's New For Lunch, and then I was on to thinking about something else.

Until a few days later when we got a call from the folks at New West for our support of Ben Lee.

Which was odd, because you don't usually get a call from a record company for just playing a song once.

But sometimes once is all that matters.

It seems that Vineyard frequenter David Letterman happened to be visiting the Island, and happened to be listening when "Catch My Disease" was on the air. The following Monday, he had his people book Ben on his show to play that song.

One play on mvyradio became a million eyeballs on Ben on CBS.

Sometimes it's fun to be the butterfly.