http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1564

i believe this is the second time i’ve done a show for WPRB on my birthday proper. last time around it was an “audiobiography” of my life. instead of replicating that, i tried a different tack: records from 1978.

of course, five seconds after pulling records for this, i tired of the idea. so the show is a mishmosh of things. that’s got more to do with the personal crisis i was simultaneously undergoing.

and yes, that was my mother who stopped by and said hello — she was bailing me out of the previously mentioned crisis.

thanks for your birthday calls!

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1509

ugh. i really, really despise I-95 traffic. i sat in traffic, 15 miles outside of downtown philadelphia, for over an hour. arrived at the station at 2.30 and feeling stressed out.

i grabbed a stack of new records, a chunk of compilation records and did what i needed to do to get through the show.

started off the set with this radiant boy’s new ep, played in its entirety to bide some time and figure out some general direction for the show. they play at tritone on 7/16 [err... tonight]. its their record release party.

from indie rock i went to OG rock’n'roll and soul. that was pretty fun! after that, your guess is as good as mine when determining what my “direction” was.

ended my show with a splitting headache, all thanks to the lights which signal incoming calls.

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1461

a c newman is not as hideous as i made it out to be in my mind. its not that bad. but its not the greatest thing since sliced bread, which is what everyone claims.

i find it endearing that the thermals named their record after a phrase that WPRB coined. [dont believe me? proof is here!]

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1410

definately one of my best shows since returning! i cant believe i have never broken out NEU! on my show, even though im quite a fan. [i needed a bathroom break, for real.] they are one of those bands i always tell myself to play for next week’s show and then i never do. funny.

the billy crosbys were a band formed out of people who attended my high school in nj. very twee-pop influenced by the mountain goats, etc. i havent played this record since um, 1999, and i have to say, it holds up well.

there’s a nice slideshow of the new WPRB studios online. this is the equivalent of seeing your longtime internet crush in real life.

minuses first:

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1359

this is the sound of failure, folks. this is what it sounds like when you dont know how to operate the new cd players that arrived in the studios during the past week, while you were out. this is what it sounds like, when doves cry.

well, i almost did cry! by the time i got around to playing the new gary young i wanted to run out of the studio like a big ol’ baby. i felt so stupid for not being able to know how to cue up the new cd players and it would play through entire records. fun fun fun.

i should have known it would be off to a bad start when i walked in with a game plan of records i wanted to play [amon duul II, sloan's "g turns to d," drop nineteens] turn out to not be in our collection.

not only that, the djs before me failed to pay attention to the clock. i noticed it was 2:59 and they were like “uhh…” while i flailed around the studio trying to cue my first record and junk.

i was feeling disjointed and edgy, ergo, so was my set.

pluses next:

today i received my parking sticker for the summer. it says right in the middle, “WPRB DJ.” how much fucking cooler does it get. its a badge of indie cred… for my car!

i listened to sloans “g turns to d” about a million times today in the aforementioned car while thinking about the songs i’ve penned that are specifically about ex-boyfriends. i wonder if their reaction would be the same as this particular song, if they were aware that i had written something about them. anyway, that gave me a whole ‘nother idea to mull over and eventually you’ll see an essay about that in this very space.

lastly, i made a coherent post on ILM. a rarity, indeed!

new playlist available.

definately the most comfortable ive felt on the air since starting back up but i know there’s a lot of kinks to be worked out.

lots of callers today, especially about brave new world, savage republic and robert wyatt. thanks to everyone for their kind words during one of my more challenging stretches.

http://www.wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=1257

background music: Butchershop Quartet performs Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” wow. its so good.

yesterday’s show was broadcast from the brand-new, still not really finished, WPRB studios. even in their current state, i think they’re beautiful.

beautiful, but glitchy. the phones dont have their lights installed, so i couldnt tell when anyone was calling. the on-air light is still wired to the hallway lights. everything was just slightly out of reach. i tried taping the show to MD and found that patching in from one of the extra headphone jacks will also pick up both the cue and broadcast.

overall, not a bad show though. i stuck to cd because i wasnt comfortable with the new board to try out the turntables just yet. baby steps.

the new s prcss record is quite different from any other material ive heard of theirs. what a great band.

pit er pat was a pleasant surprise. ill have to check out more of their record again. the cover reminds me of sense and sensuality by the au pairs. [i cant quite think of the modern arist that did their cover, right now.]

today’s guest: jt
background music: sola

stereolab “john cage bubblegum” v/a: why popstars cant dance
awek “is this easy?” s/t
guv’ner “babys way cruel” knight moves
this radiant boy “beware the scabs” shakedown at the russian disco
girls “decoy” s/t - NE
undertones “family entertainment” best of
wedding present “box elder” singles 89-91
vaselines “son of a gun” best of
guided by voices “real” teenage fbi 7″ - REQ
-
lizzy mercier descloux “funky stuff” v/a: mutant disco
y pants “off the hook” s/t
theoretical girls “theoretical girls” s/t
avengers “misery (finger on the trigger)” the american in me
liliput “dc-10″ s/t
antietam “attract mode” victory park - NE
seekonk “hate the sun” for barbara lee
sonic youth “pattern recognition” sonic nurse - NE
-
8 eyed spy “run through the jungle” s/t
we ragazzi “pretty little grave” wolves with pretty lips - NE
sons & daughters “johnny cash” love the cup
constantines “blind luck” modern sinner nervous man
superchunk “night of the chill blue” v/a: working holiday
north of america “keep it on the download” brothers, sisters
-
m83 “run into the flowers” dead cities, red seas & lost ghosts
patrick wolf “#2″ lycanthropy
lali puna “micronomic” faking the books
lorelei “my assassin” v/a: fields & streams
aveo “the idiot on the bike” battery - NE
spoon “revenge!” 30 gallon tank

im not sure what is stranger: the first week back at the station or the station not having any records.

as ive mentioned before, wprb is in the process of moving to a new building on campus. for the last 2 weeks the entire music library – thouands upon thousands of LPs, CDs – has been slowly packed up in boxes. the only thing which remains are rock compilations and new releases. it was suggested that we bring in our own stuff but even my own music collection is currently in storage!

so the playlist is what it is. i offered to sing the requests i was unable to fill on-air and only one person humored me ["here comes your man"].

the station must know we’re leaving because the equipment was acting up. turntable one refused to cue and cd player 2 started unpausing cds on its own.
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as you may or may not have heard, WPRB is in the midst of moving its studios to a new building on campus. we’ve been packing everything up and broadcasting at the same time - certainly no easy feat for a station thats more than 50 years old!

chances are, we will probably not have your request available.

i propose this: if you call up during my show [3-5 PM EST] and request a song, i will sing it on the air.

WPRB is accessible by radio and the internet: 103.3FM or http://www.wprb.com/