I came across a blog at WFMU the other day featuring a lot of pre-Khmer Rouge regime Cambodian rock music. Most of the artists are unknown and a lot of them died during the genocide. The music is interesting and definitely worth a listen if you’ve never heard Cambodian psych.

Anyways, you can download all of the songs for free, which is always a plus.

blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/12/cambodian-rocks.html

The end

December 9, 2007 | | 2 Comments

So we are done..! but what do we do now?

Do we abandon our blogs to internet obscurity?  Do we continue to complain about our non-existent class and how bad we are at blogging and/or commenting?

I do not know, but this may turn into a bit of a concert review/mp3 blog. Wordpress is nice and it’s pretty simple. I might as well keep bloggin’.

In related news, I think our class website looks great. You all really pulled it together.

Fredericksburg Free Store

December 6, 2007 | | 1 Comment

This past Saturday was the Free Store on the Third Floor on Caroline Street. It was a place where you could give the possessions that you don’t need (ie clothes, books, anything, etc.) and take what you do need. I really enjoyed the idea of the store and the turnout was pretty good with people coming and leaving all day. I donated a stack of my self-released CDR from this past summer and brought along my guitar and was joined by a violinist. Overall it was a really great time.Fredericksburg Free Store

“Fredericksburg Free Store II”  Photo by Katy 

Assault Squad Safety Scissors + Violinist

Assault Squad Safety Scissors + Violinist at Free Store Photo by Katy

Friday night, after witnessing a tofu hot dog eating contest, Austin Lucas and the Pressmen began to play. Austin Lucas is a an ex-Hoosier living in the Czech Republic who plays a bit of country with a little anarcho-punk feel. His Pressmen were a scattering of European folk musicians. The show was just another tale of how shitty bars are as venues. The crowd was drunk and ultra-conservative (it is Fredericksburg…) and the security was complete bullshit. We, being under 21, were kicked out before 10:30…which is strange, because even in DC, you can still stay in shows well past midnight when you are 18. I assume it was just some ploy by Fatty J’s to get more money out of the liquor they were selling…even though we paid a cover charge… One lesson learned: never go to Fatty J’s again…

Austin Lucas was quite fun to watch, though. It’s what modern country should be. Traditional and real. Dirt, blood and tears.
Austin Lucas and the Pressmen

[photo attributed to whoever has the photobucket name Olesalty]

Dear Rock Diary,

I watched “Almost Famous” for the first time since middle school. It’s still a great movie, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this class while watching it. It made Lester Bangs seem like such a miserable bastard, I don’t even want to imagine was James Miller was like when he was writing rock critiques. I used to write music reviews for a small website based out of California, but part of the movie actually explained why I quit.

clara clara

Clara Clara

When I started writing, I was able to only review things that I liked, so it was easy to write about melodies and use nice adjectives to describe songwriting, but once you have to start reviewing things that aren’t so good…well, it’s kind of depressing. No longer are you sharing what you love with the world, but rather what is just mediocre…which is kind of a weird thing to share. I got fed up with feeling like I had to give a good review to a band I didn’t like, so I just stopped. Anyways, rock is dead, stop whoring out things to the masses. That’s distasteful.

I’m much happier doing my specialized radio show on wmwc. I don’t have to play music that I don’t have a connection with, so the entire show that I get to share is everything that I actually like. Now, I know since I have a specialty show, I can only play lofi/diy stuff, but that is what I truly love about music. These artists aren’t doing it for the money. They make music because it is fun. Plus it is like making mixtape every week.

oh blog entries.

love,

Andrew

Beat Happening

I’m getting worse and worse at posting my playlists. It’s not because I am getting lazy, but it is because I can’t connect to the internet half of the time to actually log in here. Either way, here is monday night’s playlist. Aired Monday night, 11/12/07 from 9pm-10pm eastern time zone.
The Microphones – The Glow
Baby Perfection – Bone Zone
The Rosa Parks of Music – Of Your Certainty
Thanksgiving – Money Equals Dracula
Teom – Venus De Milo
Beat Happening – Our Secret
Teom – Holland
Eric Metronome – Next Week
The Love Letter Band – I Thrust These Trembling Fists Into The Air
Charlie Devine – Nobody Cares for Me
Nevin Kight – Loose and Tolerant Love (Milk)
Daniel Johnston – Funeral Home
Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You In The End
The Dirty Projectors – Science Hill
A Drum and an Open Window – Indianapolis
Bee Folke – windchimes in a thunderstorm
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – A Normal Suburban Lifestyle Is a Near Impossibility Once You’ve Fallen in Love With an International Spy

TUNE IN TOMORROW (Monday) from 9-10 for some good ole’ lofi/homerecording from here and around the world.

11/05/07 wmwc playlist

November 10, 2007 | | 1 Comment

I’m a bit late in the game this week, but better late than never, yeah?

The Apples in Stereo – Man You Gotta Get Up
love letter band – College Kids
Karl Blau – 100,022
Unknown?? – Track 18 off of Kelp! # 3 (live track)
The Rosa Parks of Music – Of Your Laughter
A Boy Named Thor – After The War
Golden Rainbow Kid – Party Girl
The Music Tapes – March of the Father Fists
The Microphones – Samurai Sword
Boogdish – Your Not That Virile Dave
Teom – Napoleon
Pants Yell! – New #4
Park – Something to Say
The Olivia Tremor Control – I Have Been Floated
Thanksgiving – Oregon
Cloud Cult – I’m Feeling So Fuckin’ Fine
alfred daniels midland – We Want Scuba
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Sunday St

real post coming soooon…

Alright, now we are good for worldwide streaming.
Aired from 9-10pm est

listen live next time at wmwc.umw.edu
or download the feed when I get around to finding a place to host it
playlist:

Sinkcharmer – California’s Gone
Little Wings – Look at What the Light Did Now
Ben Burroughs – Just One Thing
Wells – Ocean
Teom – Polish Children
Michael Jordan Touchdown Pass – Titles Are Formality
Bee Folke – cartesian coordinate humor
Marbles – I Love the Summer Days
Cartoon Monster – Sad Song Sung By Sad Children
The Capstan Shafts – Right on The Malthus
Colin Clary – Blowin’ Off The Sun
Ghost Mice – The Moon Will Rise
Eric Metronome – Aphids Amongst Us
Golden Rainbow Kid – Helado
Dennis Driscoll – Hades’s Nightgown (live)
of Montreal – Dustin Hoffman Thinks About Eating the Soap
Uke Of Spaces Corners County – Mountain Home
Elliott the Letter Ostrich – Get Plenty of Sleep, You’ll Need to Keep Your Eyes Open
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – New Year’s Kiss

Dear Rock Class Diary,

So the show was less than spectacular, as Adrian ended up being the opening “band”, and having to play a really short set on someone else’s guitar. He used his looping pedal for most of the guitar parts and sang from a notebook of things he had written on the train. It was great to hear his voice in person. It sounds just as good in person as it does on the records, so imperfect it’s just beautiful.

I did end up hanging out with him after the show at a random shop in Charlottesville, and we played music on some terrible instruments in the rain. As proof, here is a picture that would go in my scrapbook of keepsakes if I had such a thing..

Adrian Orange and
(from right to left, Me on some keyboard that had a drum machine ((i want one)), Adrian Orange on an out of tune guitar looking all Phil Elverumy, Cassandra Lopez wearing a dead animal sucking on a lolli)

It was a night full of the absurd, but I’m all about Camus, so I went along with it.

I’m really looking forward to Mount Eerie in a few weeks.

the end

wandering a bit/ rip OPP

October 26, 2007 | | 1 Comment

I think we are on our way to deciding what our class project will be, which is a good second step. The first step was deciding to start talking about the project, which eventually did happen. I am still up for doing a project about doing a project that no one actually knows what it actually it…if that makes sense.

I found a quote from an interview with Roddy Doyle about his dialog writing style.

I don’t know, to be honest with you. I think what happened with “The Commitments” is that what I tried to do was make it narrator-free. Just to let the characters do their own roaring, and I kept the descriptions as bare as possible. “

salon dot com

Right after, he talks about the other books in the trilogy, saying that “It’s written in the third person but if such a thing is possible, it’s written in the second-and-a-half person, if that makes sense.” I found this to be pretty interesting, and thought the Commitments was a pretty decent read.

WMWC is now streamable everywhere, so now you of campus people can listen in. I’m still probably going to try to capture the stream, so that I can turn it into a podcast.

I’m going to see Adrian Orange tonight in Charlottesville and am possibly seeing him tomorrow night, at some other location, which I guess I’ll have to find out from him. Should be a good time, I’ll try to remember to take photos. If you don’t know who Adrian Orange is, download some Thanksgiving. and if you can’t find any of that, then go to his virb and have a listen.

and the fall of OPP has made my week pretty somber…rise again?