Pornography for the Audiophile

[Guest Flyboy]

You could barely come up with one song (although, it was great), last night.

[Guest Sandman9000]

College radio is mad fun. I've got three shows, a jazz one, a 4-6 a.m. one, and a normal format afternoon show. I refuse to take credit for the jazz one, so I refuse to talk during it. (Our station plays jazz from 8-12 every weekday morning, dammit) The afternoon show is a normal format show, play all of the alternative bullshit. The morning one is fun, and since no one is listening, I completly abandon the format and play whatever I want, usually some of my own shit. It destroys me for the rest of the day, but it's fun. I know once this semester is over, I won't be signing up for another 4-6 a.m. show, however.

 

One of my friends does 6-8 a.m. shows three times a week, when people are actually listening. He wants to start freestyle rapping over the air, and wants me to throw down some stuff too. I'm a little apprehensive about it, but I'm sure if I tried, I might be able to only suck, instead of completly suck.

[Guest Kinetic]

Inc.,

 

Whenever your next show is (after this one.. Sunday, right?), you could have a block of heart-broken songs.

 

Start it off with E.C.'s "I Want You", and you're good to go.

That encompasses about 70% of all popular music, so he's got a lot to choose from. "I Want You" is most excellent, but I think I'd build to it. The sentiment should be progressively more psychotic as the set goes on. That's the thing with radio more often than not...there's no art.

[Guest Flyboy]

Damn... both you and Inc. find that song "psychotic" or "creepy".

 

I just find it a depressing love song.

[Guest Incandenza]

Kinetic--I agree with you about building up to it; that's part of the challenge of doing a theme show.

 

Flyboy--Two things: 1) You caught me off guard last night with the sad love song request. With enough time, I could build a pretty decent hour of heartache from my own collection. 2) I don't think you're looking at "I Want You" in the proper context. The first part of the song is fairly straightforward, but look at this:

 

I want you

It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for

It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for

it's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing

I want you

It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing

I want you

He tossed some tattered compliment your way

I want you

And you were fool enough to love it when he said

"I want you"

I want you

The truth can't hurt you it's just like the dark

It scares you witless

But in time you see things clear and stark

I want you

Go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop

I want you

I'm afraid I won't know where to stop

I want you

I'm not ashamed to say I cried for you

I want you

I want to know the things you did that we do too

I want you

I want to hear he pleases you more than I do

I want you

I might as well be useless for all it means to you

I want you

Did you call his name out as he held you down

I want you

Oh no my darling not with that clown

I want you

You've had your fun you don't get well no more

I want you

No-one who wants you could want you more

I want you

Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up

I want you

I want you

I'm going to say it again 'til I instill it

I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it

I want you

I want you

 

The narrator is imagining his ex having sex with this new guy, and it's killing him. The thoughts he's expressing aren't unusual for someone despondent over a lost love, but he expresses them in an intensely personal fashion, unusual for pop music. What's so unsettling is how close to the truth it is.

[Guest Flyboy]

Ah, okay... I understand, now.

 

With the lines about "undressing" and what not.. plus, the screams... fuck. It is creepy. I shall go listen to it again, now.

 

Although, I'd like to point out that I really don't consider E.C. "pop music".

[Guest Incandenza]

Eh. "Pop" is such an all-encompassing category. It can be used to describe anything remotely catchy.

[Guest Flyboy]

Okay...

 

Look at it like this:

 

You go to your college and I'll go to my school... we'll poll some people do they know who Elvis Costello is (not including teachers/professors), no less have they heard his music for it to be "catchy".

 

'Pop' is Spears, Kelly Clarkson, AVRIL~! Lavigne, and furthermore.

 

I don't know what you would consider E.C.

[Guest Incandenza]

I got this from allmusic.com, a great music resource website. It explains a different kind of pop better than I could:

 

Power Pop is a cross between the crunching hard rock of the Who and the sweet melodicism of the Beatles and Beach Boys, with the ringing guitars of the Byrds thrown in for good measure. Although several bands of the early '70s — most notably the Raspberries, Big Star, and Badfinger — established the sound of power pop, it wasn't until the late '70s that a whole group of like-minded bands emerged. Most of these groups modeled themselves on the Raspberries (which isn't entirely surprising, since they were the only power-pop band of their era to have hit singles), or they went directly back to the source and based their sound on stacks of British Invasion records. What tied all of these bands together was their love of the three-minute pop single. Power-pop bands happened to emerge around the same time of punk, so they were swept along with the new wave because their brief, catchy songs fit into the post-punk aesthetic. Out of these bands, Cheap Trick, the Knack, the Romantics, and Dwight Twilley had the biggest hits, but the Shoes, the Records, the Nerves, and 20/20, among many others, became cult favorites. During the early '80s, power pop died away as a hip movement, and nearly all of the bands broke up. However, in the late '80s, a new breed of power pop began to form. The new bands, who were primarily influenced by Big Star, blended traditional power pop with alternative rock sensibilities and sounds; in the process, groups like Teenage Fanclub, Material Issue, and the Posies became critical and cult favorites. While these bands gained the attention of hip circles, many of the original power-pop groups began recording new material and releasing it on independent labels. In the early '90s, the Yellow Pills compilation series gathered together highlights from these re-activated power poppers, as well as new artists that worked in a traditional power-pop vein. Throughout the early and mid-'90s, this group of independent, grass-roots power-pop bands gained a small but dedicated cult following in the United States.

 

It also links to similar styles of music like--this is more copying-and-pasting--New Wave Pop/Rock Mod-Revival Britpop Paisley Underground Jangle-Pop Garage Rock Revival Indie Pop Pop Underground.

[Guest Kinetic]

Had you polled the same group of people in 1977, I bet they'd have considered Costello pop music. Pop encompasses all types of popular music (meaning non-classical) and I'm willing to accept that definition. If you want to consider it an actual genre of music, that's a whole different can of worms.

 

And on a totally unrelated note, what the fuck is a Mod? I hear that term a lot and I've never understood it.

[Guest Incandenza]

No clue, but have you heard any Of Montreal, Kinetic? I've been playing them during my format show--not to be confused with the speciality show this thread is dedicated to--and they're pretty good.

[Guest Kinetic]

I've heard of them. Any specific recommendations?

[Guest Incandenza]

As far as I know, Aldhils Arboretum is the only thing of theirs at the studio, and everything I've heard off it is good.

[Guest Cerebus The Aardvark]

Dude, just play "Love" by The Twilight Singers for an hour; it would work.

 

Anyway, I had a friend who did college radio a few years back; he went into a mental institution not long afterwards.

 

Just saying.

[Guest LooseCannon]

And on a totally unrelated note, what the fuck is a Mod?  I hear that term a lot and I've never understood it.

British slang, I believe, for someone who's image-consciously hip and trendy. Here in the State's we call them "art fags."

[Guest Ace309]

I believe it's a clipped version of "Modern."

[Guest Incandenza]

There's a guy at the station that has two Smiths shirts and one Morrissey shirt. I believe he qualifies as a "mod."

[Guest goodhelmet]

iirc, mods were around during the 60's and basically rebelled against the fashion sense and music of 60's swinging era london. the spirit of the mod is captured through early who and kinks songs. while they may be considered "art fags", i guess they are as close to pre-punk as you can get.

[Guest Kinetic]

I own one Smiths shirt. I don't think that really makes me anything. I wish it would, though, as I'd like to be categorized as some type of person. That's why I asked about the mod thing. So let's see: I own a Smiths shirt, I smoke, and I listen to arty music. Am I mod or do I need a beret or what?

[Guest goodhelmet]

you need a moped and a union jack coat.

[Guest Kinetic]

A moped? Fuck that. If being hip involves riding around on a bicycle with a lawn mower motor strapped onto it, you can count me out.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I own one Smiths shirt. I don't think that really makes me anything. I wish it would, though, as I'd like to be categorized as some type of person.

The irony in me reading this statement is that I've often made the same thing, only totally serious and meant it. Scenes own, and I've always wanted to be a part of one, but my problem's always been "a little bit of everything means a whole lot of nothing". Damn eclectic tastes

[Guest Kinetic]

I've always been like that, too. It was a bigger deal in high school, where being on the fringe means you either eat with a bunch of misfits at lunch or sit alone. All it means now is that I can't immediately identify with any particular group or properly answer the question "what kind of music do you listen to"? No big loss.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

True that, but you have to realize that as a freshman I'm still stuck in "high school mentality" in that being in a clique (which, much to my disappointment, I've found there still are in college) or having a label is much better because it guarantees you a connection on at least some level with some other person with that label. What I always found funny was even though there are some situations (like wrestling) where I have that label, I also find myself wanting to "break out" of that label, even though I can't think of anything outside of wrestling to talk about with others in "the clique".

 

Perhaps I'm just silly. What's not silly though, is at least at my school college is a LOT like high school, except you live there. Maybe this is just because most of the people I know are freshman and are thus also still stuck in "high school mentality".

[Guest Incandenza]

My next show's in less than 24 hours. I'm thinking of starting off loud, with the roar of Tad's "Bullhorn," followed by either "My Black Ass" or "Crow" by Shellac. I'll be busting out some hip hop, too, with a double shot of Kool Keith, back when he was with the Ultramagnetic MCs ("Give the Drummer Some") and something from his early solo work (the more recent stuff is crap; I'll stick with Dr. Octogon, probably, as most of his other good solo stuff is far too filthy for me to play).

 

There'll be some Tom Waits, of course--I'm determined to devote an entire show to him in the future--and also some E.C. The rest...who knows?

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Kool Keith + Tom Waits = makes me wish the RIAA weren't such a bunch of money-hungry fools and don't want radio statiosn to pay extra for webcasting. When will they get that if people don't get to listen to it on the radio beforehand, especially new, independent, or obscure artists, they're not going to buy it?!

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

The irony in me reading this statement is that I've often made the same thing, only totally serious and meant it. Scenes own, and I've always wanted to be a part of one, but my problem's always been "a little bit of everything means a whole lot of nothing". Damn eclectic tastes

Just get some tattoos. Give a dude some acid, and let him start doodlin' on your neck. You'll end up with something pretty hardcore probably. Image problem solved, you're now the dude with the martian chick with big flaming boobs on his neck.

[Guest LooseCannon]

My next show's in less than 24 hours. I'm thinking of starting off loud, with the roar of Tad's "Bullhorn," followed by either "My Black Ass" or "Crow" by Shellac. I'll be busting out some hip hop, too, with a double shot of Kool Keith, back when he was with the Ultramagnetic MCs ("Give the Drummer Some") and something from his early solo work (the more recent stuff is crap; I'll stick with Dr. Octogon, probably, as most of his other good solo stuff is far too filthy for me to play).

 

There'll be some Tom Waits, of course--I'm determined to devote an entire show to him in the future--and also some E.C. The rest...who knows?

You should play "song for the minerals" by Shellac. "Give the drummer some" is the only ultramagnetic mc's song I know, and word is, it;s the best, so yeah, play that. And of course, you can't go wrong with Dr. Octagon, but I've been in a very Del tha Funkee homosapien mood lately, and I'd recommend you play something by him.

[Guest Incandenza]

Feh. I've never cared much for Del. The way he tries turning every track into a quasi-freestyle thing is boring.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Feh. I've never cared much for Del. The way he tries turning every track into a quasi-freestyle thing is boring.

::faints::

 

I can see exactly what you're talking about but I wouldn't say he does it on every track. Not to mention that's part of his style. My opinion's pretty biased though because even though you'd never know by my Del-less CD collection I'm a huge fan of his. In fact I'm really pissed since he's coming to The Catalyst (local SC club) soon and I won't be able to afford tickets (assuming they haven't sold out already).