Monday, March 11, 2013

#640: Quitting Radio 2

It's sick, but sometimes my stash of 3-dozen CD's isn't ENUF motivation 2 get me thru a bad workday.
I'm slowly adding more motivational music, on my tight budget. & I've tried test-driving previously-unheard stuff at work, which often doesn't work 2 well 4 me, or 4 the public. Ghod knows what kind of damage I mighta caused 2 people's psyches when I tried out Cromagnon's CAVE ROCK at work a few months back....
But no matter what it is that's playing, even if it doesn't Xactly keep me moving, I know it makes me happier than hearing local radio spin something lame & WAY-played-out like the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" 4 the 9-millionth time.
How did things get like this? & why do people settle 4 it? Maybe they don't -- & that's why portable music devices (iPods, Walkmans, Discmans, etc.) have been so popular since the early '80s.... Way better 2 program your own music, rather than letting commercial radio make completely predictable choices 4 you....
Anyway, 2 go along with my mostly-continuing radio boycott, here's what I've bn playing lately at work, in the car on the way 2 work, & elsewhere....

Florence + the Machine -- Shake it Out.
Stevie Wonder -- I Was Made to Love Her, Signed Sealed Delivered, Superstition, Higher Ground, You Haven't Done Nothin', I Wish, Sir Duke, That Girl.
Chicago -- Old Days.
Camel -- Never Let Go, Rhayader, Rhayader Goes to Town, Unevensong, Breathless, Echoes, Sasquatch, Mother Road.
Love -- Alone Again Or, A House is Not a Motel, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The Red Telephone, Maybe the People Should be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale.
Turtles -- Sound Asleep.
Beatles -- Ticket to Ride, Eight Days a Week, Paperback Writer, Help!
Kansas -- Miracles out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force Ten, Marathon, Mission.
Fleetwood Mac -- Oh Well, Green Manalishi, Why?

...Stevie Wonder went over pretty well at work. I hadn't heard "Higher Ground" & "You Haven't Done Nothin'" in YEARS, & they both still sound great. "I Wish" is practically a themesong 4 a nostalgia nut like me -- which makes it a good companion-piece 2 Chicago's "Old Days." "That Girl" unfortunately sounds better coming unXpectedly out of the car radio....
Should note that Love's FOREVER CHANGES features some really Xcellent, powerful acoustic-guitar strumming & slashing along with occasional electric-gtr freakouts 2 accompany the superb songs....

Checked-out a couple local 2nd-hand stores last week, grabbing cheap old albums by the Turtles, 2 by the Rascals, Youngbloods, Paul Simon & Gordon Lightfoot. Haven't actually LISTENED 2 any of these yet. (Crap, I still have stuff I grabbed last JULY that I haven't played yet....)
Left Bhind a few things that might B worth some $$$ -- King Crimson's DISCIPLINE (couldn't justify spending $8 4 an album cover since I already have it on a home-burned CD), + the Four Seasons' STORY 2-record best-of (on Private Stock, out-of-print since about 1978), Bobby Goldsboro's 20TH ANNIVERSARY 2-record best-of, & Rod Stewart's 2-record Mercury BEST OF.
I already have enuf Rod the Mod 2 keep me happy -- & tho I briefly thot about grabbing the 4 Seasons & Bobby Goldsboro cos they might B worth some $$$, then I started thinking about HOW 2 sell them & 2 who, how quickly I could turn the $$$ around, & decided it wasn't worth it -- these days I can only justify buying stuff I might actually LISTEN 2.... (But if you're intrested in these, check out the Port Orchard, Wash., St. Vincent DePaul's Thrift Store -- they're CHEAP....)

...About the only thing I can find worth hearing on local radio these days is rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kott's weekly SOUND OPINIONS program, carried here on the University of Washington's KUOW FM. In recent weeks they've had interviews & live performances with/by Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams & others, reviews & samples of good-sounding new stuff (Richard Thompson's ELECTRIC, Rye's WOMAN), & overviews of shoegaze, '80s psychedelia, etc. Some critics' babies, 2 B sure, but not enuf reviews or Desert Island-worthy picks....
Oh, & Seattle's news station KOMO aired a pretty good 5-minute interview with Paul Revere of the Raiders. Did you know the Rolling Stones OPENED a show for the Raiders once...?
More soon!

1 comment:

R S Crabb said...

hey TAD,

Radio is much worse here, hell Public Radio sucks even more so i been taking a few CDs at work while trying to combact basement water, water in the car water everywhere where its supposed to be. Forever Changes still sounds good, bought that to work.

Sad to say the radio we knew and liked will never return so we're stuck with the same 200 songs and 10 minutes of commericals. A discman comes in handy for me!