Sarah McLachlan "In Your Shoes"

Last week there was a conference of non-commercial radio stations.  I wanted to go, but it was during our Fund drive for Friends of mvyradio.

I was quite interested in the forum titled "The Tori Dilemma."  The question at hand was, if you are a station that breaks new artists, but you've been doing it for years and years, what do you do when your new artists, have become established artists?  You're not really breaking new artists if you are playing the new Tori Amos, Natalie Merchant or Sarah McLachlan.  But if you don't play them, you are effectively ignoring the artists you told your listeners were important to pay attention to.

For MVY, we're not necessarily chasing a younger, more fickle audience.  We still try to break new artists, but we're comfortable sticking with the heritage acts, even if they are "old."



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Translator "Everywhere That I'm Not"

A Throwback Thursday post:

Yeah, you're everywhere, but that I'm not.


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Barenaked Ladies "Pinch Me"

"I could hide out under there/I just made you say 'underwear.'"

I have to admit, I had never heard this underwear joke, until I heard Barenaked Ladies "Pinch Me" in 2000.

How did I miss this in childhood?

Well, that won't be true for my own kids.

I started saying "LOOK UNDER THERE!" to them, to trick them into saying "underwear."

It only took a few times for them to turn it around on me.

Now, pretty much every day starts with them saying to me, "Dad-dad-dad-dad-dad!  Look under theeeere."

And I dutifully and happily play the fool who says "under where?!?!" eliciting peels of laughter.


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Tune-Yards "Water Fountain"

I can't imagine this song joining MVY regular rotation (can you hear this coming out of "Lay Lady Lady"?).

That said, it is the stickiest, most memorable, hummable, joyful song on the iTunes playlist right now.

Enjoy!


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Robert Cray "Deep In My Soul"

I dashed down to the basement.

Now that I have kids, a wife, and you know, stuff, many of the symbols of bachelorhood have been relegated to the basement.

Like the giant tower of CDs.

It was my kid's birthday party.  So the house and backyard were packed with nearly 20 pre-schoolers, plus their parents (many of whom I only really know from drop-off) and various relatives.

And my wife said, "Can you put on some fun music?"

So I dashed down to the basement and came back up with a 1/2 dozen discs that I had quickly picked off the shelf, assessing that they'd be generally acceptable to the crowd.

That was a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, which meant that it was time to give the house a big clean, since we were having family over.

I found the pile of CDs from my son's party, still next to the stereo.  And seeing the names of the spines made me laugh.

Ray Charles
Al Green
Johnny Hoy & The Bluefish
Otis Redding
James Hunter

What appeals to pre-schoolers, grandparents, Dads forced to take their kids to a birthday party on Saturday who are trying to enjoy themselves by drinking a beer, Moms who are enjoying the company of other Moms who understand their struggles better than their spouses and Grandparents who look at their grandkids and remember when they were the hosts of these chaotic preschool parties?

What appeals to all these groups?

Soul Music.

It cuts across all demographic lines, works for all groups, creates the right mood.

Soul Music makes the party.  Even a preschool one.


I mention this, in part, because Robert Cray has a new album called "In My Soul."  It's his tribute to classic soul music.  And for our Friends of mvyradio Drive, we're giving folks a copy of the record if they donate $100 to support our non-commercial station.  Think about making that donation, and getting your own disc of music to make your party just right.


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The Sugarplastic "Montebello"

A Throwback Thursday post:

I was driving through Virginia during April vacation, and saw a sign for Monticello. 

From the deep recesses of my brain, popped this tune, which I'm sure I haven't thought about since the 90s.


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Steve Miller Band "Fly Like An Eagle"

Like pretty much ever single solitary person my age in the late 80s, I owned a copy of Steve Miller's Greatest Hits on cassette.  And I listened to it constantly.

I mean, I knew every word, every inflection.  I knew how long the pause was from one song to the next, so I could start humming, in sync with the music.  In fact, at a certain point, I didn't really need the cassette at all.  I could have sung/hummed the whole album, in real time.

WBCN was promoting that Steve Miller would be stopping by the station, and he would be playing live in the studio.  He had a new album out, but he was sure to play some old hits too.

And he did oblige, launching into a spaced-out version of "Fly Like An Eagle," solo, on an electric guitar.

"Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin . . . into the future . . ." Miller sang, and I sang too.

Then something strange happened.

Miller sang "Feed the children, who don't have enough to eat."

I kinda froze.  What was he going to do?!?!

Now maybe you're saying to yourself, "I don't get it.  What's the problem?

Here's the problem.

The lyric is "Feed the babies, who don't have enough to eat.  Shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet."

But he had flipped a word, singing "Feed the children, who don't have enough to eat."

Was he going to have to complete the word flip and sing, "Shoe the babies, with no shoes on their feet"?  That doesn't make any sense.  Babies don't need shoes!

And it's not like he can stop the song to gather himself and think his decision through.  He's going to have to do something.

We're only talking about 2 seconds.  But I learned a valuable professional lesson in the space between the lines.

If it's live, let it go.

I've opened up the microphone on live radio tens of thousands of times.  And sometimes, you make mistakes.  You stumble over a word.  Or a whole sentence.  You misplace modifiers.  You accidentally swear.  You introduce a Bruce Hornsby song as "Bruce Cockburn."

And when you do, there's not much you can do.  Once it has gone out, you can't bring it back.  The only thing you can do it go forward.  You can compose yourself so you don't fuck up again.  But you go forward.

That's was Steve Miller did that day.

He sang "Feed the children, who don't have enough to eat.  Shoes the babies . . ." and then he just let his voice drift off, and filled with his guitar.  He picked up the lyrics with the next line, "House the people, living in the street, oh-oh there's a solution" and he just kept going.

I took that lesson to heart.  Even Steve Miller, a guy who probably sang "Fly Like An Eagle" more times than even I had, can screw up from time to time.

But professionals don't let a stumble completely derail things.  They just gather themselves, and plow ahead undaunted.

It's great advice for DJ's, and for life.


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Lorde "Swinging Party"

I'm not a grumpy old man.

But clearly, I am an old man.

My friend Lori TB gave me the heads up that Lorde does a cover of The Replacements' "Swinging Party."  (She wrote "I 100% always think of you when I hear anything at all to do with the 'mats.")

My first thought was "How does Lorde even know this song?"

My second thought was the realization that this song came out in 1985.  Lorde wasn't born until 1994!

I'm not complaining that a young artist covered The Replacements.  I just find it shocking.  In the same way I'll find it shocking when they move Wheel Of Fortune's time-slot on the TeeVee.


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David Bowie "The Man Who Sold The World"

Much like "Random Ridiculous Songs That Have No Business Being Played In Public Again But I Heard In The Grocery Store Today," I keep an ear out for songs in public places, that are strangely out of place.

For instance, standing in front of the elevators of the Florence, South Carolina Doubletree Hotel, it does not seem like they should be playing David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World."

But on the tail end of a long vacation, somehow it seemed appropriate.

I'd just come from Disney, where the art of merchandising is perfected, and amazing.

I mean, it's no revelation that the amusement rides promote the movies and the movies promote the rides, and they both promote the t-shirts and stuffed animals and acres of plastic crap that is every which way you turn.

But I did find myself both impressed an horrified and the marketing onslaught.

And as I stood there in front of the elevators, I thought, yeah Bowie, you're right, you can slap a logo on just about anything and sell it.  Even the world.


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Big Audio Dynamite "The Bottom Line"

"The horses are on the track!"

Whenever I am telling a younger person about the stupid things I used to do, I invariably mention my one trip to the Kentucky Derby.

Being a group of poor 20-somethings, it was our plan to sneak alcohol onto the Fair grounds.  But security was tight.  How to get it in there?

Sandwich bags, filled with grain alcohol, stuffed into the bra of one of the women in our group.  She looked rather busty, but no one frisked her chest!

Then it was soda and grain alcohol all day.

I placed my 2 dollar bet on a random horse, and couldn't believe it when I won!

They say Disney is the happiest place on Earth, but I have to say, I have never been in a happier place than in a massive line of drunk folks who had all picked the Kentucky Derby winner and were lined up to collect.

The Derby is this weekend.  "The horses are on the track!"


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