Seldom Heard Radio - Music & Culture in the Spirit of Free Radio

Audio Stream ...

2010-10-24T12:19:00.002-04:00

Seldom Heard Radio 10242010 - my first live broadcast of the Autumn and I'm half asleep at the microphone ...

Send comments if you'd like the playlist posted! And thanks for listening ...

Tracks - Golden Dreams

2010-10-21T20:02:00.001-04:00

Here is a gem of an unreleased song from a band called Tracks. Tracks was a band that formed at Dartmouth College in the late '60s, and was managed by Wayne Wadhams (of The Fifth Estate, "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead.") Tracks released music on the Boston Skyline Records label. There is a review of a best-of compilation at http://www.allmusic.com/album/r57619 If anyone has more information on Tracks and would like to share I would be most appreciative.

Essential info ...

2010-09-30T11:36:00.003-04:00

So who is DJ Frederick and what are all his projects, anyway? In addition to working 45+ hours a week and trying to make time for my famly, I have flights of fancy that involve the following:

Seldom Heard Radio is the title of my long-time core radio project. It consists of a mix of independent music from the 1950's to the present. On any given broadcast you might hear a freeform blend of world music, rock, jazz, psychedelic, acoustic, jam, funk, indie pop and all kinds of other music along with updates on the world of radio broadcasting and indie media. Seldom Heard Radio is broadcast on WSCS 90.9 in New London NH and has been heard in the past on WNEC 91.7 Henniker NH, 95.1: The Pirate Ship, WBCQ shortwave, WRMI shortwave, Radio 510 International and JRRI in Ireland.

SIGNALS - an occasinal series of low tech DIY zines I am writing, editing and publishing related to pirate radio, shortwave radio, community radio, broadcasting history, indie media and related topics.

See www.signalszine.blogspot.com (new issue published in 2010!!!)

MIXED MEDIA - local media column focusing on radio, print, and internet media in the Kearsarge / Sunapee regions in New Hampshire. Mixed Media is published every other week in the Intertown Record our excellent local newspaper.

THE VILLAGE GREEN - New project for 2010 ... podcast/broadcast to illuminate local and regional musicians from New Hampshire and New England. Eight 30 minute episodes have been recorded to date! Check out the Village Green blog for downloads at
http://www.villagegreennewengland.blogspot.com/

The Village Green may also be downloaded at www.radio4all.net

One Minute Zine Reviews - exactly as the title says, in both audio and video editions.

Check www.zottepark.com/djfrederick for links ...

Voice of Middle Earth - new podcast inspired by the writings of JRR Tolkien featuring earthy and ethereal music ... visit www.middleearthradio.blogspot.com for more information and streaming audio!

The Hopeful Telegram: A Hippie-Punk Archive

2010-09-26T14:30:00.002-04:00

A new radio endeavor from DJ Frederick ... this is just the "pilot" program ... lots of musical obscurities from the 1960s through the present ... not much announcing ... emphasis here is on psychedelic folk music, peace, freedom, creativity, and homemade radio as revolution.

Please leave comments ... next time more announcing, I promise!

A Seldom Heard Radio Online Music Stream`

2010-09-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

Enjoy!

Jeff Pekarek To Each Their Own LP

2010-08-31T17:55:00.000-04:00

Jeff Pekarek & friends started off 1982 by recording this LP in eight hours on January 2nd. Those were the days when engineers, producers and musicians used less digital wizardry and more sweat equity. (Okay, having written that sentence, despite the weird language and the existence of Mike Oldfield, I'm going to let the statement stand ;-) To Each Their Own starts off with a gorgeous guitar tune (Sunrise) then segues into what sounds like a Billy Bragg inspired sea shanty (Blow Ye Winds). There's traditional music with cello (Devil's Dance / Cuckoo's Nest), a slow sacred music themed burner (Gate Gate) and more. Coming from other artists, this LP might be seen as disconnected, disjointed, and unfocused but Jeff Pekarek's stellar musicianship shines through and unifies To Each Their Own into an adventurous listening experience. Tucked away toward the end of the LP is one of the most beautiful guitar pieces I've heard in ages (Sea Urchin). May Yoga Records keep unearthing these gems that deserve a much wider listening audience.

www.yogarecords.com

WNEC interview part two

2010-08-22T14:28:00.000-04:00

College radio has always been a strange animal. It ranges from highly professional university stations that are National Public Radio affiliates to small, student run, low-powered stations that may not even be heard beyond campus borders. Henniker’s WNEC, transmitting at 91.7 is somewhere in the middle, broadcasting with about 100 watts to surrounding communities (including parts of Warner, Bradford, and Newbury). This week we continue our interview with the station manager Dan Freese and veteran DJ Chip Colcord.

Dan, tell me about your role as the station manager.
Dan Freese: Concerning my role-for many years, probably at least five, the station in my opinion started to fade. When the station was moved to the Simon Center from the dungeon in the library I believe it lost its identity. We were always like a cult and when it moved it became more mainstream which has its good and bad points. With that in mind I’m going to attempt to regain some of its mystique from the past. The first thing that was done was to move the broadcast studio from the closet it was in to a larger room. I never liked the set up of that room, too confining and no air circulation. This was accomplished without affecting our operating budget and with the aid of Phil Reeder who is an alumni of New England College (and WNEC). He and I spent many hours planning this and we were able to do it without a major disruption in on-air time.
The structure of the E-board is the next thing I’m working on as right now the station operates more like a club than a station. We spend too much time discussing events we want to sponsor and not enough on the operation of the station. I’ve re-written some of the student job descriptions like Program Director and added the position of Music Director. My hope is that during the summer I can work with the students in these two positions as far as training them in their roles and we can move forward from there.

What do you have in mind for the future of WNEC?
Dan Freese: A couple of items in the future is to re-establish a production studio where the student DJ’s can make promos and station ID’s-basically have some fun and be creative. We have the equipment for this; I just need to assemble the pieces. We’re also moving forward with internet streaming which we had at one point but when advisor’s changed several years ago so did that ability. And one final thing is to work with the Student Athletic Advisory Council to broadcast athletic events which is the most common request we have.

From the standpoint of programming my hope is that more students become involved with the station. Currently we have students on campus that don’t know we have a radio station. At one time, during my twenty plus years associated with WNEC we had students doing a show three times a week starting at 7 am and I recall the station broadcasting live everyday of the week from noon until 2 am. That’s my vision and we will get there, as long as I can remain patient.

Chip could you tell me about your broadcasting history on WNEC?

Chip Colcord: I started the new show called Out of the Woods back in November of 2009 after taking a three year hiatus from radio. Back during the 1990s I hosted similar shows which were split between contemporary folk and bluegrass programming. I did variations of these shows from 1994 through 2001. The new show incorporates the best of both, plus additional genres as well so long as they are acoustic-based. My emphasis is on the 'wires and wood' fretted instruments, so you won't hear a lot of horns or pianos, but they sneak in too occasionally. I play a lot of new releases from the best of the contemporary singer-songwriters and bluegrass acts, but also try to play some of the classics as well as the occasional 'fish out of water' such as Nirvana Unplugged and that sort of thing. Hopefully there's a little something for everybody in the mix. I am also trying to have the occasional live guest perform on the show as I did in the past. Since it is a Friday show, it is more difficult to schedule visits with touring musicians on that day. I did have my first guest recently however when multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Rich Hamilton came out from Jaffrey to play live on the show, and I have a few other local acts in the works as well. The show has been airing from 6 to 9 on Friday, but at least for this summer season listeners should be able to hear me from 4 to 7 pm. With any luck, this will become the new time slot for the show, allowing for good drive time/dinner time listening. Artists wishing to submit music or perform on the show can contact me at: wnecacoustic@gmail.com.

What you feel the role of college radio will be in the media age?

Dan Freese: The future of college radio, in my opinion, is fading. With the expansion of satellite radio I think that only the larger schools with money to invest will continue although satellite radio has its share of problems. I believe WNEC will continue on (via the internet) but only so long as it is affordable.
Chip Colcord: I would like to think that college radio will remain pretty much the same in the future, but that air stations will likely become online-centric, if not moving entirely to online broadcasting.

Your columnist predicts that there are two divergent scenarios college radio could travel. In one, it becomes irrelevant due to the overwhelming competition from ipods, online audio, and digital music formats. In another scenario, it fulfills its mission though offering educational audio programs, academic and community access to the airwaves, and focuses on community services that are not available through commercial radio or websites. In order for this to be successful, colleges must fund their radio stations adequately and treat them like the resource they are. The next decade will be crucial for non-commercial radio in all forms. Let’s tune in and find out where the radio voyage is going!

Pat Gatti - Someone ... Somewhere

2010-08-21T09:57:00.001-04:00

Growing up in the 1960's and 1970's, the atmosphere in the music "industry" was very different. Musicians seemed to create music for the sheer joy of it ... music was a spiritual calling, a vocation, something that needed to be manifest - not for the MTV masses but for the individual and their circle in the world. Thank the gods and goddesses that some of these musicians went into recording studios and dropped their creative visions onto tape and vinyl.

Listening to Pat Gatti's Someone ... Somewhere (1975) while driving to the radio station yesterday, tears welled in my eyes. Right from the start, the title track resonated and echoed in my heart. It was like hearing the comforting words and melodies of John Denver, but expressed more soulful. Gatti's songs range through the emotions of love and grief, meeting and parting, and distance ... and then he illuminates with guitar instrumentals like "16th Century Orient" and "Estudio and Obbligato" that are so well crafted and nuanced that one can not help but to stop everything and listen.

I understand that Pat Gatti played the nightclub circuit for a living, with its smoke filled stages and loud, inattentive crowds. Its almost impossible to listen to this music and not be taken on a journey. Thank you Pat for leaving these songs to us, and thank you Douglas for releasing them digitally via www.yogarecords.com

Two "new" songs from Fletcher Tucker (Bird By Snow)

2010-08-21T09:30:00.001-04:00

Words can not describe the beauty of Fletcher's music, or the movement his words and music create in my soul. Songbread/Another Ocean is the most expressive, heartfelt, and spiritual recordings of the past decade. Now he is offering "After Birth" ... free mp3s of alternative versions of two of the songs from Songbread/Another Ocean. I feel deep
Gratitiude ... download at www.gnomeliferecords.com.

Bird By Snow's next venture drops in late October on vinyl & cd. Now is the time to cultivate patience.

All Indie Radio WAIR

2010-08-08T19:43:00.001-04:00

A new broadcast of free radio shortwave station WAIR is available for download ... apparently the torch has been passed from previous station operator Robert J. Yardbrown to new host A. J. Kretchmar. WAIR used to specialize in hard-to-find indie music and it's good to hear that spirit is continuing ...

http://www.mediafire.com/?64vmnvyydje29if

WNEC interview part one

2010-08-08T19:26:00.001-04:00

Previously published in the Intertown Record:

Nestled on the second floor of the Simon Center at New England College is a radio station that is tenacious in every sense of the word. Its origins reach back to the early 1970’s.Your columnist recalls joyfully listening to 91.7 FM back in the 1980’s and then later becoming a community DJ there in the mid 00’s. The studio was essentially a closet, the cd players were ancient but stalwart machines, the transmitter always had technical glitches (when it was working at all) and the technology was from the ghost of radio’s past. However in 2010, the station is enjoying a highly anticipated transformation. It is my pleasure to introduce you to our area’s best kept radio secret – WNEC.

Station manager Dan Freese and veteran program host Chip Colcord graciously consented to conduct an interview about WNEC.

What makes WNEC different from other radio stations?

Dan Freese: Well, WNEC is a college radio station and because of that it is in part a training facility as well as a source of diverse musical tastes. From the training standpoint we realize that mistakes will be made but by allowing the students to make mistakes (unless it violates FCC regulations) it makes it easier for them to do a show. If we took them to task for anything they may do wrong then we wouldn’t have any student DJ’s. Of course, we seasoned pro’s make mistakes as well and don’t (and I won’t speak for Chip) beat ourselves up too bad.

From a music standpoint our format varies from acoustic to Christian, rap to jazz, eclectic to classic rock and roll so we cover a wide spectrum. We’re currently working on a playlist for our automation system that will included music from current show song logs, almost like the student’s show with a pre-recorded promo to be played during the automated program that informs the listener that they are listening to a sample of the dj’s show and when it’s on-almost like an hour or 2 long promo.

Chip Colcord: Well, first I guess I think people would have to realize the difference between commercial and college radio to begin with. WNEC has a bit of a history of being about as free-form as a radio station possibly can be. The hosts themselves have historically controlled the content of their individual programs nearly 100%. Aside from the required public service announcements and station identification, DJs on WNEC create their own programs. Having so many varied personalities on the air, you never know what you will tune in to find, for better or worse. Listeners are likely to tune in one day and hate what they hear, only to tune in the next day and fall in love with a certain program. This variation has always been the tradition at WNEC and it happens year after year as students come and go, community members join and depart, and so on. WNEC DJs have been putting genuine thought behind their flow of music since it began in 1972, years before Pandora.com attempted to do the same thing with a computer. College and community radio is an art form in itself, while commercial radio is simply a business.

What will listeners hear on WNEC?

Dan Freese: As far as what listeners will hear, we are on the air 24x7 due to automation which has a variety of music although it tends to favor my tastes and that of Chip because we put the list together. As far as live shows we let the students choose the venue or style of music at this point, we don’t have a rotation like we’ve had in the past. Styles of music vary from Christian oriented to hip-hop and rap although I still have not been able to distinguish between the 2. We did have a student doing an international show that concentrated mostly on German music and we also have 2 students doing a sports talk show at 11 am twice a week.

Chip Colcord: Unless there is a live DJ doing a show at the time they tune in, listeners will hear our present automation flow that we have been tweaking for some time now. Whenever a live show ends, the DJ will play our automated mix of music from various genres. It is presently organized into miniature sets of music that hopefully flow nicely, split with public service announcements and station identification spots. A lot of different station members and friends have helped to ensure there's a little something for everyone in the automation flow. Dan has already mentioned a plan to add more specific show-related spots to our automation created by the DJs themselves, and we will continue to improve the mix and hopefully create special flows for various times of the year such as a holiday mix.

Your comments on media and other musings are always welcomed at singinggrove@conknet.com.

New Hampshire college & LPFM stations

2010-08-07T18:18:00.002-04:00

A brief guide to college, independent and LPFM radio stations in New Hampshire:

WUNH – 91.3 – Durham: University of New Hampshire – the granddaddy of all college radio in NH, this station has been on the air since at least the early 1970’s and has a fantastic digital signal with 6,000 watts reaching all of eastern and southeastern New Hampshire, northern Mass and southern Maine. http://www.wunh.org/.

WSCS – 90.9 – New London: Colby-Sawyer College – station where I have DJ’ed since 2000, sincere and energetic college radio for the Kearsarge Region of New Hampshire. www.colby-sawyer.edu/wscs

WPCR – 91.7 – Plymouth: Plymouth State University – commercial free listening as you drive North on 93 toward the White Mountains. Mostly hard rock but occasionally some classical! www.wpcr.edu

WKNH 91.3 – Keene: Keene State College – excellent variety and now broadcasting 24/7! www.wknh.org

WNEC 91.7 – Henniker: New England College – great little indie station broadcasting 24/7 with a wide range of tunes ... brought back to life by Chip Colcord and Dan Freese. Chip's show, Out of the Woods, can be heard on Fridays at 4 pm.

WSPS 90.5 – Concord: Saint Paul’s School – an awesome variety of music, great signal, but often on automation! Live community oriented DJ’s would be appreciated! http://wsps.sps.edu WCNH - 94.7 - Concord NH - 80 watt classical music station heard mostly within Concord city limits. http://www.wcnh.org/

WXGR - 101.5 - Dover NH - Great tunes. Automated 24/7 but does broadcast "Democracy Now" http://www.wxgr.org/

WLLO - 102.9 - Londonderry NH: Automated mix of folk and rock music. Operated by the Londonderry School District.

WSCA – 106.1 – Portsmouth NH – the Seacoast's awesome low power fm community station! www.wscafm.org

WFPC-LP 105.3 in Rindge NH operated by Franklin Pierce University - I don't know anything about this station!
and across the state line into Vermont ...

WOOL - 100.1 - fantastic community station based in Bellows Falls VT with local program hosts bringing the airwaves to the community and the community to the airwaves. www.wool.fm

Small Mountain Bear

2010-08-05T18:19:00.001-04:00

One of the joys of being a DJ at a college radio station (WSCS) is rummaging through the stacks and discovering something totally new and wondrous. Small Mountain Bear definitely fits both adjectives.

In this promo cd, Will Read has collected twelve original songs, each with its own musical sensibility. There is an occasional homage to Paul Simon or the Kings of Convenience on this cd but in the context of Read's skillful songwriting and musicianship and indie folk/pop ethos, this is a good thing. From the opening "Untitled (Spy Song)" with both acoustic and wah wah guitars, cymbals and catchy melody / chorus, I knew I was in for a treat. In the true indie spirit, the artist distributes his music for free via downloads on his website. How cool is that?

Listen up at www.smallmountainbear.com

A word from Larry Knutson ... thank you so much!

2010-07-27T21:07:00.001-04:00

Just ran into this three year old blog entry concerning WSLE in Peterboro, NH. I was the night shift DJ with that station, from 1977 to early 1979. Joel Gray (Music Director) was morning drive, Tim Tobin (Program Director) was mid-day, and Ken McKay was afternoon drive time. Debra Budreaux (sp?) was the Station and Sales Manager and Fritz Weatherbee the News Director and personality in his own right. WSLE was the first of the true east coast Indie Stations. Yes, WNEW in NYC was the major metro rules ground-breaker, and later the Boston Phoenix station was incredible. However, the Boston station's format was clearly a knock off of what Tim Tobin put together at WSLE. I can remember doing the night show, many times, when a national artist would "stop by" his/her favorite east coast station, WSLE. Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Noel Paul Stookey, Dr. John, Jorma Kaukonen, George Thorogood, Bob Weir,,,,those jump to memory immediately, but there were MANY more incredible visits and experiences in that little studio in Southern N.H. It's nice to see that someone still remembers those halcyon early days of free-form radio, which didn't last long, but arguably formed some of the bedrock for today's web based stations, such as Folk Alley and Radio Paradise.

Travel Well friends,
Larry Knutson
WSLE 1977-1979

Release of the Summer 2010 ... Ryan Kickland's "The Mountain"

2010-07-27T19:21:00.003-04:00

Wow. I'm determined to revive this blog after way too long a hiatus. Might only get to post every so often ... so rather than posting a release of the month I am presenting a Release of the Season this time around.

One of the reasons I am excitied to revive the blog is a promo cd that I generously received from Ryan Kickland. If the Decembrists Hazards of Love is a rock opera, then Ryan Kickland's The Mountain is a folk opera that rocks. The songs follow a natural arc, the story of transformation of one man in communion with the natural world. Kickland's songs are simultaneously universal and intensely personal. His music is wonderfully masculine, as the musician calls forth this inner magician, warrior, king and lover. One doesn't stumble across music this deep very often - the "Songbread / Another Ocean" lp by Bird By Snow comes to mind, yet only in the sense that both lps involve rich imagery and unique voices telling it "how it is" from the soul.

Now more than ever we need to embrace our place in the natural world. Humanity is not different from nature, but an essential part of the ecosystem. How we navigate our place in the natural world will impact our survival as a species, and the overall health of what is left of our environment. Journeys like The Mountain may tip the scales in the direction of personal and environmental healing.

For more information visit www.kickland.com

First post in 100 years!!!

2010-07-25T21:20:00.002-04:00

Okay ... maybe not *that* long ... but close enough

A free radio friend tells me that there are two new radio programs from early to mid 2000's shortwave pirate stations posted at the website below ... so I'm getting the word out!

Mystery Science Radio (2010 Episode 1):
http://www.mediafire.com/?9gihehqot3sqis5

Purple Nucleus of Creation (2010 Episode 1):
http://www.mediafire.com/?rwf0r2urb275xv0

DJ Frederick's top two internet sites for buying music

2010-05-22T10:24:00.001-04:00

1. CD BABY – CD Baby was started by one man, Derek Sivers, a musician who was asked by a few friends to sell their cds on the his band’s website. CD Baby now distributes music by over 80,000 artists. Every imaginable genre is represented, and I have personally found some of the most intriguing and obscure indie music on the planet via CD Baby. There are numerous payment options, reasonably priced cds, and the cds arrive fast. There really *is* a whole world to explore. www.cdbaby.com

2. DUSTYGROOVE - funk, soul, rock, jazz, cds, lps, 45's ... what's not to love? Dustygroove is part of the indie / lesser-known music camp ... exceptional service, selection and prices. If I don't stop now I'll sound like a commercial.

http://www.dustygroove.com/

Guitar Soli - Wayfaring Strangers

2008-04-13T14:06:00.002-04:00

The Numero Group returns with more obscure beauty. Expanding their distinctive quality, Rob Sevier and company resound tastefully yet again,

but with a new reissue direction for a new year. Further strengthening their contention that esoteric is better, Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli pulls selectively from the 15 transformative years between two guitar paradigms — American Primitive Guitar of the Sixties and New Age of the Eighties — showcasing lesser known innovators who challenged the narrative depths found in a 6 or 12 string guitar.

The song selection maps fingerstyle’s frontiers from 1966-1981, suggesting Numero as a label retrospectively in discussion with John Fahey’s Takoma Records and William Ackerman’s Windham Hill Records. Likewise, the life stories painstakingly detailed in Guitar Soli’s spirited 40-page booklet affirm the authenticity of the players alongside their compositions, thereby acknowledging both the stylistic traditions and regional environments that nurtured such songwriting — idiosyncratic American locales like Northern California or rural Wisconsin. From Ted Lucas playing sitar on Motown records to Brad Chequer never making it past Windham Hill’s slush pile, these literally unsung songs and players had a tangible presence in their day.

More than anything, Guitar Soli embodies a latter-day American folk aesthetic, when impressions of a changed and changing society evolved into verve and musical self-discovery. For instance, listen to this compilation’s bookends — two haunting compositions by Dana Westover and Dwayne Cannan — that function as Guitar Soli’s overtures, and yet feel just too powerful to be mere ruminations. Thriving on complementary opposites, these songs linger loudly and quietly, the players sounding out a self-determination that surely includes loneliness. The 14 voices on Guitar Soli shimmer with 14 personalized guitar stylings, each marked by an independence in composition through discipline and mastery.

Essential Listening #2

2008-04-12T08:49:00.001-04:00

What??!!! Three Dog Night???!!!

I was watching an episode of "Lost" a few months ago when in a critical scene this song cranked over my speakers and once again into my consciousness after many years. The lyrics are spiritually healing and uplifting - a rarity in the music industry.

Wash away my trouble
Wash away my pain
With the rain in shambala
Everyone is helpful
Everyone is kind
on the road to shambala
How does your light shine
in the halls of shambala?

Since when has a pop song expressed this essence of hopefulness? Listen, immerse, and enjoy.

Essential Listening #1

2008-04-02T11:12:00.004-04:00

I've decided to take a break from doing a "Release of the Month" for April and instead pose the question: if I had to grab a record or three from a burning building, what would they be? High on the priority list would be this 7" vinyl released by Bruce Licher's Independent Project Records back in the early 1990's in miniscule amounts. Half String's Oval / Sun Less Sea are sonic journeys that stay embedded in your consciousness. Sun Less Sea is one of my favorite songs of all time - starting off with a meandering but melodic jangly guitar line and building to a wall of sound crescendo that shows you how to soar with the gods before drifting slowly back into the atmosphere. Pure bliss. You could get lost here.

Release of the Month: February 2007 - North Sea Radio Orchestra

2008-02-10T14:03:00.000-05:00

How can you *not* love a UK musical collective that call themselves the North Sea Radio Orchestra? Their name conjures images of staticy shortwave radio signals, rain-battered ships and formidable waves. Their music conjures images of a different nature - clean, well-lighted, intimate theaters and performance spaces. Neo-classical in tone, with a healthy mix of instrumentals and vocal based songs, North Sea Radio Orchestra is a rare gem ... akin to the American based neo-classical group Rachel's. Is it pretentious? If quiet is the new loud, this cd roars.

Release of the Month: January 2007 - The Harpeth Trace On Disappearing

2008-01-17T14:54:00.001-05:00

Following the eloquent and exceptional debut EP "Man and the Cousin", The Harpeth Trace has released a gem of haunting folk and psychedelia. In my mind's eye, I imagine the band rolling into a cramped studio around 3 am to start recording sessions in the quiet cloak of night. In fact, the word nocturnal comes to mind when swimming through their slowbeat haze of guitar, drums and bass. On Disappearing is the perfect title for the meditative, blues-tinged quality of Harpeth Trace's first full length cd ... one can almost fade into the shadows and silences in these songs. Not that The Harpeth Trace can't rock out ... as they do on "The Numbers in Your Hair".

All of their song titles are impressionistic, with hints of the Clientele's wordsmithing --- but The Harpeth Trace is uniquely it's own band, defying reference points. With On Disappearing they have created a masterpiece that flows and works its magic from track to track --- the way an album was meant to be listened to.

Release of the Month: October 2007 - PIRATE RADIO USA

2007-10-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

If you've searched for Pirate Radio related documentaries on film, you'll know that less than a handful exist- if you can unearth them. They don't exactly atract lucritive distribution deals and glowing reviews from the mainstream press. Just in time to save us from the tedious monotony of this year's films, B-Side has released Pirate Radio USA on DVD.

DJ Him and DJ Her take bring the viewer on a live tour of the underground world of unlicensed broadcasting in America. Radio Davids battle Media Goliaths and find out the real price of freedom. This film immediately connects with the audience - the hosts are friendly, have a retro sense of humor, and know their subject intimately - they have been pirate radio operators for many years. Pirate Radio USA covers almost a decade from the 1996 Broadcast Act which spawned unprecidented media consolidation into the hands of a few mega corporations. DJ Him and Her narrate their personal quest to connect with other pirate radio stations, document the micro-radio coverage of the World trade Organization protests in Seattle, and educate us on the finer points of why free radio is so important to communites. This film is far from fair & balanced - but then, corporate media and the National Association of Broadcasters have million dollar lobbyists & countless media platforms from which to shout their stories.

I have a simple formula for whether a documentary is worth my time. Does the film hold my attention? Does it stimulate learning? Pirate Radio USA achieves both, proving that you don't need a budget to present an entertaining film on topics ignored by mainstream media.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Release of the Month September 2007: Hobbyhorse - Break In the Clouds

2007-09-02T11:41:00.000-04:00

This wonderful album opens with the swirling sustain of an organ, lilting percussion (bodhran?) quiet, precise guitar and earthy vocals & builds from there. Traditional in one sense, quietly experimental in others, Hobbyhorse's Break in the Clouds embodies the magic that is woven in the art of folk music - and by folk music I mean music that is authentic, spirited & manifest from the love of creation rather than 'music industry' profit motive. Each song is a delight of discovery.

Hobbyhorse is Annie Aronson and Phil Campbell. They have created an online music & art community at www.hobbyhorsecafe.com - an experience of sound and vision to explore and enjoy ... an online space to envision yourself sipping the most delicious cup of tea surrounded by mesmerizing beauty.

Ringing Down the Years

2007-05-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

Oh man. I was borned & razed in manchester new hampshire and managed to drop out of high school while I could still think for myself. As soon as I got my hands on a friend's car I remember haunting the local record shops of Southern NH and Northern MA looking for unknown (to me) bands and obscurities. One day I found a 7" vinyl by Jonee Earthquake Band. I recognized Jonee from manchester, and thought - I have to buy this. One listen confirmed I was right - it was a slice of pure guitar joy, a rockin' rave-up ode to vinyl records called Black Plastic and a reggae tinged tune called Batten Down the Hatches.

While digging through the vinyl archives at WNEC, where I somehow hold the miraculous title of Community Program Director, I came across four vinyl gems by Jonee & krew. Looking up the interweb I discovered his website & sent a few dineros for some very inexpensive cds. Holy fuck, local punk/folk music lives with a vengeance. This dude is a still a brilliant songwriter, and thats no shit - one listen to "Up With Piracy" and I'd discovered a theme song for Seldom Heard Radio. As long as no one listening to WNEC turns me in to the FCC. Or as long as no wizard turns me into the FCC. There are worse fates but I can't think of them at the moment. Read this: FU FCC. Thanks for stealing our airwaves and selling them to Clear Channel, etc.

Cruise over to joneeearthquake.com. Don't be such a recluse like ye olde DJ here, go see a show, or at least fork over some bucks for some cds. Most of them include bonus tracks by other bands.

Release of the Month May 2007 - The Christ Tree

2007-05-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

My personal history with religion is checkered at best. I was raised a mainstream protestant christian, had brushes with the Unification Church and born-again fundamentalism, converted to anglican catholicism and had a brief existance as a third order monastic, became an atheist after some emotional upheaval, then finally a quiet pagan. Now, I believe that there is no way that god and goddess don't exist (oops, double negative) ... God as We Understand God To Be is too deep to fit inside one limited set of beliefs called a religion.

Imagine my delight upon hearing The Trees Community The Christ Tree and not just tolerating the christian references, but revelling in them. This is music like no other - meditative, prayerful, organic, joyous, ponderous, a full-on masterpiece of the mid 1970's era. From the Trees Community's website: "80 Acoustic instruments and more are nestled in the Christ Tree. Starting with an initial collection of Indian Sitar, Tamboura and drums, Venezuelan folk harp, American Guitar, French Flute, Austrian Zither and Tibetan Gongs, we began to add more and more instruments. Everywhere we went people gave us full blown instruments or noise makers, ranging from finger cymbals to Japanese Koto; from African Belanji to American Dulcimer".

I only wish I had been adventurous and purchased the 4 cd box set before it went out of print. This one cd version includes:

1. Psalm 42

2. The Parable of the Mustard Seed

3. Psalm 45

4. Invocation (O Little Town of Bethlehem)

5. Village Orchestra

6. Jesus He Knows

7. I Will Not Leave You Comfortless

8. Chant for Pentecost

9. Psalm 46

10. Bird Song

11.Lift Your Weary Hand

12.Your Name...is an ointment poured forth

13.Raga*

14.Psalm44

15. Annunciation

16. Symphony of Souls*

17. Baptism

18. There is Such a Love...that steals into the heart, planting a kiss on deep wounds

* previously unreleased, not included on the box set

Praise the Lord and pass the headphones. Pray that more recordings are forthcoming from this psychedelic christian commune. For more information see www.somedarkholler.com

Release of the Month April 2007 - Kevin Hume

2007-04-23T17:12:00.000-04:00

This morning I listened to a cd that inspired me to start a new feature on this blog & in my radio broadcasts ("Release of the month") that may inspire me to update this blog more frequently.

When the first track started spinning in my cd player, my musical attention was immediately caught, probably for the first time since New Year's ... and I have listened to a lot of new releases since then. Warm morning sunlight filtered through my windshield as I drove South on Route 89 toward work. At first I thought ... this is curiously different, then a few moments later ... wow, this is closing in on sustained brilliance. I was transported back to the first time I'd heard the Penguin Cafe Orchestra more than 20 years ago --- hearing something that felt entirely fresh, a blush of discovery. Kevin Hume's The Truth About Ants and Aphids is an astonishing piece of work ... musically adventurous in every respect. His music weaves in elements of guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel (my favorite instrument of late), cello, violin, harp, flute, trumpets ... these songs embody both the fragile beauty of Spring and the melancholy haze of night. Thematically coherant yet transcending boundaries of folk, jazz, and classical music, The Truth About Ants & Aphids is easily one of the most intriguing releases of the year ... one that will receive numerous spins (all tracks!) on my WSCS and WNEC broadcasts.

Check out www.premiumfantasymusic.com for more information.

Sound of Birds

2006-12-23T15:10:00.000-05:00

Sound of Birds has released a generous sixteen track
cd of "home demos & such" with beautifully crafted songwriting by Michael Red. The atmosphere on Home Demos & Such ranges from acoustic meditations to bone-crunching downtempo melancholy. This band takes shoegazing one step further - right through the stage floor. A DIY ethic infuses this CD with incredible energy.
This cd is one to listen to in the late nights or hushed mornings.

For more information visit myspace.com/soundofbirds.

Little Somebody Records

2006-11-30T16:24:00.000-05:00

The psychedelic folk underground / aboveground / forest is alive with voices, guitars and bells. I'm just discovering Little Somebody Records, an independent label that has birthed releases by Arrowwood, The Joy of Nature, and novemthree.

Given time I may write more in depth reviews of these releases, in the interim, when you emerge from the mists, log onto http://www.myspace.com/littlesomebody for a delighful sample for the ears. Little Somebody Records plans releases by Cloud Temple & Green Mistletoe among others. We are truly blessed with new music of the woods.

The Boy With A Broken Leg

2006-11-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

More proof that the revolution won't necessarily be broadcast, televised, or brought to you by corporate music industry behemoths. The Boy With A Broken Leg is from Lisbon, Portugal & a unique voice in the realm of indie music. His recordings feature hushed voices, otherworldly melodies, waking dreamscapes and an abundance of songwriting craft. I'm looking forward to introducing listeners to his music on my radio broadcasts.

For information & song samples check out
http://www.myspace.com/theboywithabrokenleg

Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory

2006-03-12T09:07:00.000-05:00

Recently I have been exploring new worlds of 7" vinyl and songs & sounds that delight my esoteric ears. One outstanding discovery is the new 7" single by Nobody and the Mystic Chords of Memory released on Earsugar Records http://earsugar.com.

These two songs "Memory" and "Broaden a New Sounds" are glimpses into their forthcoming cd Tree Colored See. Nobody (DJ Elvin Estella) collaborates with the Mystic Chords of Memory (Jen Cohen and Christ Gunst) on a sunshine-soaked folk pop masterpiece. If these two songs are any indication, the forthcoming cd will be timeless and a must have for any psychedelic pop music affectionado. Gunst's vocals are dreamy to the point where they float unassumingly over an immaculately balanced production while Nobody blends in bubbling shuffles of percussion as subtly as possible. Pure bliss.

Seldom Heard Radio special broadcast on shortwave!

2006-02-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

A special broadcast of Seldom Heard Radio will be heard on shortwave in Europe on 6240 kHZ this coming week via Jolly Roger Radio International in Ireland. Thank you Joe Vincent! The photo at right is part of JRRI's broadcast studio. More shortwave transmissions will hopefully be forthcoming!

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

2006-02-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

Late last week, the planet lost another light warrior.

Author, peace advocate, film producer, spiritual seeker, father, lover and friend Steve Diamond moved on to another dimension. Steve was a nomadic ambassador of spiritual devlopment, an original member of the Liberation News Service and co-founder of a long running New Age commune in northwestern Massachusetts, which he chronicled in his 1972 book What The Trees Said - Life on a New Age Farm.

Rather than type a lot of words that can not possibly express my deepest feelings for the wonderful soul that Steve is, please check out his essay The Wand and the Lake at www.colorwheeljournal.blogspot.com.

Safe journey and many blessings, Steve. I know that wherever you are, you're shining.

an interview with Josh of The Harpeth Trace

2006-01-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

Independent bands like the amazing The Harpeth Trace are a major reason why I broadcast on radio and publish this blog - to play lesser known music over the airwaves that needs to be heard & to share information among the alternative radio community. I am working on the capacity to host on-air interviews with musicians and indie media folks (the technology at both WNEC and WSCS is primitive at best - kind of the way I like it!) so please stay tuned as this effort evolves over the coming semester. In the interim, written interviews will continue to appear in this blog.

Thankfully Josh Kasselman from The Harpeth Trace agreed to a written interview for the Seldom Heard Radio blog:

DJ Frederick: What are the origins of your band’s name (The Harpeth Trace)?

Josh: My family lived on Harpeth Trace Drive in Nashville for a couple of years when I was growing up. It's got to be one of the most unwieldy band names ever, but I like to think it's memorable--even if it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

DJ Frederick: How did your band form? What has the creative process been like for songwriting and arrangements?

Josh: Rune (bass) and I were in a band called Boxing for a number of years, and Rob (drums) was very nearly brought on as the drummer of that band when we needed a replacement. It didn't pan out (he was in another band at the time and the schedules didn't jive), but we'd always run into him at shows and it seemed pretty likely to me that we'd work with him at some point. When Boxing split, The Harpeth Trace formed very gradually, with people drifting in and out. It's been organic if not immediate, and the lineup is continuing to evolve. For Man and the Cousin, I basically wrote the songs on guitar and then everyone chipped in ideas for parts and arrangements. Pretty standard. We completely lucked out and found a private recording studio (complete with dusty piano) that we rent by the month, so we had the luxury of trying lots of different stuff without having to pay for studio time by the hour. We recorded everything ourselves onto an 8-track cassette deck, which is what I've used to record just about everything I've ever done. I love the thing dearly.

DJ Frederick: What are your current projects & future plans for the Harpeth Trace?

Josh: We have a new addition to the band, a fella named Barry. He plays a variety of instruments and brings a tremendously open approach to songwriting and arranging with him. It's been a huge shot in the arm, and we're currently wading through all the new material we've come up with in the month or two he's been around. We hope there's an LP in there. Probably there is. In the meantime, we're just putting out Man and the Cousin in mid-January, so we're going to tour a bit in support of that.

DJ Frederick: What are your thoughts on the state of radio in the United States?

Josh: Heh. Uhhh… well, I think satellite radio is the most interesting point of discussion. On one hand, the breadth of stations allows for a more individualized approach to broadcasting. However, there's surely a danger that such a specialized approach might create narrow-minded listeners. Still, I can't see it being any worse a prospect than what we have now; save a few college and community stations--whose playlists are growing increasingly similar if you ask me--the radio is pretty much pointless. I guess I still get my news from NPR.

There's the obvious rant about payola and about the commercial stations being too scared to take a chance on anything. But the scary thing is when you look at it on a smaller scale… It's nearly impossible for an independent artist to get widespread college radio play anymore unless they can afford to hire the same promoters that the other larger indie labels use. It's like a JV version of what happens on commercial radio. Ahem, sorry to get so bleak on you. Thanks for the forum.

Editor's note: The Harpeth Trace debut EP grows more intricate with each listening. For more information on ordering Man and the Cousin check out the band's website at www.theharpethtrace.com

The Harpeth Trace

2006-01-03T09:53:00.000-05:00

The Harpeth Trace
Man & The Cousin EP
2005 Robert Barry Construction Associates

1. Cottontail
2. A Letter to the Room
3. The Man & The Cousin
4. Ghost and You Know it

I first listened to The Harpeth Trace while driving into town on an overcast pre-dawn morning after little sleep the night before. This cd has rarely left my stereo in the handful of days since. Mercurial and dreamy, these songs are infused with mystery. "A Letter to the Room" starts off uptempo like a Clientele riff then flows into jazzy territory. "The Man & The Cousin" opens with delicately strummed guitar, reverb soaked vocals, and melodica & piano drifting in on a minor key that feels rooted in traditional blues and folk. By the fourth track "Ghost and You Know It" this DJ was fully under the spell of The Harpeth Trace's creative energy. Man & The Cousin EP is available for purchase from www.theharpethtrace.com

Voice of the Seven Woods

2005-12-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

One of the most beautiful 7" vinyl releases in memory, Voice of the Seven Woods is perfect for contemplating winter. The four pieces feature acoustic guitar backed with minimal but effective percussion.

Five eventful summers have passed since the young Rick Tomlinson stumbled in to Manchester's vivid musical landscape as a vinyl hungry psyched-out sidekick to Andy Votel and Dom Thomas on their formative Twisted Nerve radio show. Rick, a self taught musician, has since drawn influence from an oblique archive of obscure LPs and bizzare instruments and forged his own unique approach to making music. A potent mixture of krautrock, folk, jazz, tropicalia and Welsh progressive rock has seduced stalwarts of Manchester's alternative music scene into countless collaborations with Rick. Various impromptu appearances at local folk clubs have earned Rick a reputation amongst mainstays of the folk scene such as John Renbourne who recently asked Rick to accompany him on future live appearances.

This debut EP can be ordered from www.voiceofthesevenwoods.com.

Mini Review: The Anvil - The Gush

2005-11-30T19:26:00.000-05:00

In the past decade, artists such as Matt Valentine and Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance) have opened the door for experiemental folk-blues-psychedelic ragas and song stylings. Fortunate for us. The next wave of musical creations is flowing ...

The Anvil is UK musician Matthew Fullwood, who has recorded a beautiful, shifting collection of psychedelic excursions. Throughout this recording, he uses guitar, bells, percussion, organ, piano and other instruments to amazing effect. These songs drone in places, melodies weave in and around subtle drums, guitar scales, and hushed vocals. There are hints of woodlands, and an earthy rhythm of another time.

From the Woven Wheat Whispers write-up: This album will appeal to fans of 60s psychedelic folk, experimental acoustic, psychedelia and modern folk song. It’s influences range broadly and are too numerous to mention but we certainly haven’t heard many bands who fuse them so well and evolving from that a music which is an expression of their own creativity.

The Gush is available for download from the excellent Woven Wheat Whispers music service at
www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk

Mini Review: Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon - In a Light

2005-11-28T19:46:00.000-05:00

available as a download from www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk

When driving home from work recently, listening to Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon and in danger of slipping into a state of dissociated reverie, a voice in my head intoned (maybe it was Carl Jung's?) "This is music of the guaze psyche."

Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon pulls one into the netherworld with hints of isolation, yet also celebration of the self, the charting of the inner world. The nine songs that comprise "In a Light" are wrapped in guitar and synth and awash with ethereal male vocals. From the Woven Wheat Whispers website: "This is modern folk trying to find its way home through the fog of communication signals and electronic transmissions"

Perfect ghost radio music. What's the frequency, Aaron?

Eye Candy Zine / Sweet Candy Distro

2005-11-11T19:53:00.000-05:00

Eye Candy Zine is the ironically named zine created by Sage Adderley. While this publication is visually appealing, it is much more than eye candy.

The Fall 2005 issue is titled "Community" and features an interview with writer Niku of Radical South & other projects, an interview with Jennifer, organizer of Southern Swag Market, articles by Sage Adderley, Kenneth Hickey and other, and also a selection of poetry! 36 half-sized pages in all. Eye Candy is available from Sweet Candy Distro, Sage's excellent distro service. Click on www.eyecandyzine.com for more info. It is very reassuring to discover zines of this quality that feature a diversity of articles, writing and art related to DIY and community endeavors.

In Julia's Mind Scene - an interview

2005-11-01T17:40:00.000-05:00

Samhain has passed & November is upon us. Already I am considering writing a "best releases of 2005" list for the Seldom Heard Radio blog and guaranteed to be included is In Julia's Mind Scene.

Their music blends folk rock with psychedelic and progressive florishes to create a timeless recording that feels right at home in 1970 or 2005.

In Julia's Mind Scene is comprised of: Mark Versteegen on acoustic guitar and vocals; Gijs van der Heijden (piano and electric guitar); Niels van Heuman (trumpet and flugelhorn); Pitrik Koeerts (bass) and Martijn Buser playing drums, percussion and vocals.

This old indie radio DJ recently flew his private pirate station in the sky lear jet to the Netherlands for an exclusive interview with Martijn. Oh, alright - it was via e-mail.

DJ Frederick: What was the inspiration / history behind forming In Julia's Mind-Scene?

Martijn: The first version of the band came together in 2000, then named The Colossal Heads of Magican County. This group was leaded by Mark Versteegen, Niels van Heumen and Martijn Buser. We wanted to form an ensemble with musicians moving in and out, and with a big ‘hello’ to Godspeed You Black Emperor! Unfortunately the idea didn’t work out well, so the nine members split up. Mark and Niels stayed in contact playing acoustic guitars and trumpet. In 2001 Martijn rejoined the group which was then named In Julia’s Mind-Scene.

With fingerpickin’ acoustic guitar, trumpet and drums we were searching for a double bass-player, the right instrument for the intimate songs which were mostly written by Mark and some from Niels. At first we wanted to make beautiful songs just to please ourselves, but in the end we wanted to let them hear to others. And we’re glad we did! We wanted to record the songs and did so in September 2004. The double bass-player is not with us anymore, but since October 2004 we have a piano-player (Gijs van der Heijden) and a new bass-player (Pitrik Koerts). Now we want to make music which we can play live. We want to touch ourselves with our music, we want to be inventive, not making music which is already recorded. Not that we are an experimental band (we still want to touch other people) but the groups individuals create something which is more that the sum of our influences. Now we’re very ambitious. We want to play more live, record more material and want to be a household name in the Netherlands. And we hope we can play outside the Netherlands as well!

DJ Frederick: Where does your wonderful band name come from?

Martijn: The name In Julia’s Mind-Scene was made up by me. The name was in my head one day. I have all of these crazy names (The Colossal Heads of Magican County was also made up by me). We know it doesn’t actually mean something in English, but is sounds beautiful when pronounced. Maybe Julia is a beautiful girl, I hope we’ll meet her once.

DJ Frederick: Who are some of your musical influences?

Martijn: The debut-record was produced by Mark, Niels, Daniël (the double bass- player) and Martijn. As we were only with four people, our inspiration for this record ranged from Nick Drake and John Fahey to Talk Talk and Chet Baker. With the new band we have a great classical pianist/arranger (Gijs) and a fusion-minded bass-player (Pitrik), which makes our music more diverse then before. Fingerpickin’ folk, postrock, jazz, krauthop, hiphop, minimal music, Belgian-styled popmusic, country and singer/songwriter are some of our influences right now.

DJ Frederick: What have your live gigs been like?

Martijn: Live the band is expanded with violin and tenor sax, which means we play with seven people. Our live-performances are getting better every time we play, and the audience is really listening to our songs. But that depends on what kind of stage or venue be perform of course. From May on we’ve played seven times and in January we’ll be doing four acoustic sessions in the Netherlands and Belgium. I hope the audience will like that too. You can listen online to three tracks which were recorded live on September the 15th and which will be recorded for the second album: http://antenne.zomp.nl/platenspeler.php?type=2.

DJ Frederick: What plans does the band have for gigging and recording over the next few months?

Martijn: Well, it’s going to be a hell of a time. We’ll record our second album this December, and we hope we can release it somewhere in April or May. We hope we can promote our album in April, May and June in the Netherlands and Belgium and play lots of gigs. We will also release two EP’s with collaborations with two Dutch acts, Machinefabriek and qrter. The first one will be something like Krauthop, the second one with more The Books-minded electronics. We also have an impro-session recorded and hope we can release that as well. In July and August the band will travel to Spain and we hope we have enough material to record the third longplayer and release that in October or November. And when you think that’s enough there’ll also be an EP with a singer/songwriter called Alexis Vos. This record with 5 songs was recorded last August and will be released sometime in the new year.

DJ Frederick: Have you found that there is an audience for indie music in the Netherlands? Do you get any radio airplay or support?

Martijn: There ís an audience for independent music. Last May and September we played for about 150 people and we get lots of attention in Utrecht. We know the music-scene in Utrecht is supporting us. They play us regularly on the local radio-station. This support in Utrecht makes us more aware that we have chances outside of Utrecht! But then again, you have to do it yourself all the way. But like we said earlier: we are ambitious!

DJ Frederick: There's no question that In Julia's Mind Scene is ambitious and this DJ looks forward to the forementioned recordings.

Check out www.injuliasmindscene.nl for more information!

Venice Is Sinking - an interview

2005-10-25T08:14:00.000-04:00

Positive energy and vibrant enthusiasm abound in the new cd-ep by Georgia band Venice is Sinking, a split cd with the band What We Do Is Secret recently released by One Percent Press (www.onepercentpress.com).

Venice Is Sinking is Daniel Lawson on vocals and guitar, Steve Miller on bass, Lucas Jensen on drums, Karolyn Troupe on viola and vocals, and Alex Thibadeaux on keyboards. Their music is infused with crafted songwriting, gorgeous vocals and harmonies, and seamless musicianship. It’s criminal that bands this excellent don’t get much radio exposure, which is significant part aspect of why I produce Seldom Heard Radio in the first place – to play a small role in turning adventurous listeners on to music they may not have otherwise discovered.

I made a conscious decision only to promote and review music, radio stations, zines & other media in this blog that are engaging & that that I enjoy immensely. Lucas and Daniel kindly consented to an interview for this blog, for which I am grateful!

DJ Frederick: Tell me about the song Pulaski Heights and the making of the video that is on your website (I personally found the imagery of the television everywhere very effective)

Daniel: The video was shot and directed by our friends Chris Poules and Tim Hayden of Wow!Bang!Science! Productions. The filming was done over the course of a few days spread out over two weeks. Chris and Tim did the editing in one 24 hour session in an attempt to meet a deadline that we later found out had been extended. Most of the video was shot in and around the Pulaski Heights neighborhood in Athens, Ga. We trespassed on a construction site for the final shots. The cops showed up but kept driving. It was fun. The lyrics to the song are about losing your keys and breaking into your apartment a 4:00 am.

Lucas: I can tell you that I've never changed my drum part once on that song. That was probably the quickest collaboration processes we've ever had. Daniel just brought in that wah-wah-wah thing at the beginning and it seems like the song finished itself. To be fair, the song is the same chords over and over again and my drum part is pretty basic. The title, "Pulaski Heights," refers to the neighborhood in which the band originally practiced, more or less, and I think that all of us have great memories of our times there, drinking mimosas at three in the afternoon and hitting golf balls at trains. But I can't remember who came up with the idea for the TVs in the video. I think Tim and Chris, the directors, came up with that. I thought it was funny. I decided that I would be cutting would with a Skil Saw. That's about it.

DJ Frederick: Tell me a little about the process of collaboration among the band members and is everyone as cool and eccentric sounding as on the website bios?

Lucas: Well, I would say that none of us is very cool, except maybe Steve. Eccentric maybe. I like a lot of George Michael/Wham records. Is that eccentric? It's surely not cool. As you can probably guess, those bios are a little, um, embellished.

As far as collaboration goes, it works like this: first we consecrate the blood of seven Melanesian virgins. Then we call on Az'grodnok, He of the Third Phase of the Destructors.

I kid, I kid. Actually, collaboration for us is a pretty easy process. Usually Daniel brings in the bare-bones idea for a song: riffs, melodies,keyboard hooks, and the like. Then we sort of jam our way through it and Karolyn and Daniel work out the harmonies and lyrics and stuff. Lyrics are usually the last thing added. Steve's pretty good at figuring out amazing bass parts at the beginning. It's actually not that long of a process for us...it's just getting around to doing it at practice. It's never been contentious.

Daniel: When we first started we weren’t really a band at all. We started out just meeting at a friend’s house at 666 Pulaski Street and improvising. We were much more experimental back then. Eventually, I started bringing in pop songs I had been working on and it went from there. Everyone added their own parts and everything got much more structured. Nowadays, we write songs as a band which is nice. It’s actually a lot like when we first started.

DJ Frederick: How are you promoting your music and how successful has that been?

Daniel: We try to play out of town as much as possible and so far the response has been pretty good. We put songs on the internet for people to hear and things like that. Once our record comes out in March we plan on doing a lot more in the promotion department.

Lucas: We haven't really started promoting stuff beyond small tours and some local and internet press, but we are planning a big campaign starting soon that will last through March, when our full-length is slated to come out. I am a publicist, so that's handy. Hopefully we will find some success.

DJ Frederick: What are your feelings on the state of radio in the US?

Daniel: The only radio I listen to anymore is NPR and certain shows on AM radio. Sometimes I listen to the local college radio station which can be great and sometimes can be annoying. The rest of the dial is pretty bleak though. I think satellite radio is amazing and overwhelming at the same time.I think podcasting is pretty interesting though I really don’t know much about it.

Lucas: Radio in the US? What kind of radio? I like the top 40 stations, to be honest, because they don't claim to be anything else than what they are. I don't want to hear Creed on classic rock radio and Dave FM...well that's just a stupid name. There are exciting new developments in the world of podcasting, the Jack format, and more, but I think that people forget that college radio, however amateur, has been educating and providing great radio in most markets in America for quite some time. I'm a major college radio devotee. Actually, I listen to a lot of AM radio, and, let me tell you, it's as crazy as ever.

DJ Frederick: What is your band doing in the upcoming few months for gigs, recording, etc?

Lucas: We're hoping to record some new songs for an EP. I have this idea about creating new songs completely out of loops, like the band Menomena. We have a bunch of out-of-town gigs coming up, so there's that. And of course the eventual release of our first LP, tentatively titled Pig Manure Mash Up.

Daniel: We’re taking off for most of December to work on new songs for our next release and to start promoting our full length record which should be out in March. We can’t wait to start recording again, it’s been way too long since we’ve been in the studio.

Editors note: Venice Is Sinking have a visually stunning website with sound samples, the video for Pulaski Heights, band bios & more at www.veniceissinking.net.

Paul Pena 1950 - 2005

2005-10-24T20:39:00.000-04:00

I'm sad to report that Paul passed away Saturday October 1, 2005 in the early evening at his apartment in San Francisco. He'd been through a long battle with Pancreatitis and Diabetes. This is a huge loss for all of us.

Thanks to the documentary film, Genghis Blue s, Paul Pena is now known and appreciated throughout the world for his amazing accomplishments as a musician, particularly for having taught himself the techniques of traditional Tuvan singing.

Paul Pena was born on January 26, 1950 in Hyannis, MA, the oldest child of Jack and Virginia Pena. His grandparents came from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. He was born with congenital glaucoma. When he was five, he began school at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown (a suburb of Boston). He graduated in 1967 and then attended Clark University in Worcester, MA.

As a young child, Paul soon showed his talent for music. His mother heard him picking out melodies and chords on a baby grand piano that had been found in the town dump and brought home, 'as a toy that a blind child might enjoy.' He developed 'perfect pitch.' Soon Paul was studying the piano, guitar, upright bass, violin and 'a little trumpet.' He played and sang popular jazz and Cape Verdian ballads with his father, a professional jazz musician, and also sang in his school choruses. Paul appeared in a talent show, and while in college, performed in coffeehouses in Worcester.

In 1969, Paul played in the Newport Folk Festival 'in the Contemporary Composer's Workshop with such people as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson.' In 1971, Paul moved to San Francisco and recorded his first marketed record for Capital Records, which was released in 1973.

In his musical career Paul played with many of the blues greats, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, 'Big Bones,' and T. Bone Walker. His song, 'Jet Airliner,' recorded by the Steve Miller Band, was a hit in the 1970s. Another album, recorded by Bearsville Records, was never released.

During this period Paul's wife, Babe, suffered kidney failure. Paul gave up his musical career at that point in order to take care of her. She died in 1991. He suffered greatly from her loss.

Paul first heard a fragment of harmonic singing on a shortwave Radio Moscow broadcast on December 29, 1984 and he was so struck by it, he spent almost eight years trying to track down its source. In 1991 he was finally able to locate a recording of Tuvan music and taught himself the vocal techniques known as 'Khoomei, Sygyt, and Kargyraa'. In addition, he learned a good bit of the Tuvan language using English-Russian and Russian-Tuvan dictionaries and an obsolete 'Opticon' scanning device which translates text into sensations. In 1993, Paul attended a concert sponsored by the Friends of Tuva organization and met Kongar-ol Ondar after the performance. Paul gave Kongar-ol an impromptu demonstration--and astonished him with his talent and mastery of traditional Tuvan singing. The two men formed a strong friendship along with their musical collaboration.

1450 kHz - WKXL

2005-10-16T13:09:00.000-04:00

This may be the first and only posting on this blog in praise of 1) a commercial radio station and 2) an AM commercial radio station! WKXL 1450 kHz in Concord NH is the shining exception to the insanity of the corporate owned commercial broadcast industry. Calling itself "Thoughtful Community Radio", WKXL has a signal radius of about 15 miles witha powerful and diverse schedule of community based and locally hosted programs. The program line-up includes health news, arts events, local politics, sports, and a range of shows that highlight everything from books to movies to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Their local news department is the best in New Hampshire, probably in all of New England. And yes - they survive on local advertising revenue!

Here is WKXL's mission statement from their website:

Our mission is to make our community even better by:

Offering useful information that makes listeners’ lives more productive, wholesome entertainment that brightens each day, and spiritual programs that provide comfort and direction
Helping our advertising clients solve problems and sell their goods and services;
Helping worthy community organizations attract support for their charitable works;
Creating interesting and rewarding careers for our Team Members;
Earning a respectable return on investment;
Setting an example of excellence for our industry.In summary, our mission is to become the very best AM station in the country.

My jaw drops when I read those words. Commercial radio does not get any better than this. WKXL is providing an outstanding service to both advertisers and listeners in the community. Check out www.wkxl1450.com for online streaming, mp3s, and more information!

The Sixth Great Lake - Sunday Bridge

2005-10-16T12:30:00.000-04:00

It's barely mid October & wintery rain, clouds and wind have enveloped New England in a melancholy grey for over a week. Perfect weather for listening to my personal favorite vinyl only release of 2005, Sunday Bridge by Vermont band The Sixth Great Lake.

These twelve songs highlight the storytelling / songwriting skills of Michael Barrett and the unhurried musical craft of The Sixth Great Lake. One easily becomes immersed in the dreamscapes of each of the twelve songs. Mellow, absorbing, and pressed on deep blue vinyl ... Sunday Bridge is a work of art on every level.

Listen to Sunday Bridge online at www.apolloaudio.com & check out the Sixth Great Lake's webpage at www.sixthgreatlake.com .. enjoy!

The Moscow Coup Attempt - an interview with Derek Whitacre

2005-10-14T14:08:00.000-04:00

If you’ve tuned up or down a shortwave radio spectrum for any length of time you may have heard mechanical female voices droning a series of numbers into the ether … or crisp high-toned notes chiming a folk tune several times in succession. These transmissions are mysterious signals thought to be messages broadcasts to spies and agents all over the world. They are referred to as “spy number stations” and appear and disappear regularly on both varied and fixed frequencies. For more information please investigate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station.

Derek Whitacre is the architect of The Moscow Coup Attempt and the delightfully cryptic new cd The Failure of Shortwave Radio which incorporates and weaves samples of shortwave numbers stations throughout blissful washes of melody. The title is somewhat poignant for me as a shortwave radio listener who has witnessed the landslide of shortwave stations discontinuing their broadcasts to North America over the past five years including the BBC, and RVI from Flanders.

Graciously, Derek Whitacre sent me a promotional copy of The Failure of Shortwave Radio and agreed to an interview for this blog:

DJ Frederick: How did you discover shortwave radio in general and number stations in specific?

Derek: National Public Radio. I heard a story about Numbers Stations and a CD collection of Numbers Stations called The Conet Project. From that point I was hooked.

After weeks of research into the subject, I went searching for myself. Using online shortwave radio networks, I was finding numbers stations every once in a while. It's quite a tricky feat, but if you have the right information on their occurrences, you can find them. Anyway... some of my recordings actually made it onto the album. Others I got from sources world 'round, with permission of course. I'd also like to state for the fact, that NONE of my recordings came from The Conet Project collection. I say this because the individual that compiled it is quite letigious on record.

DJ Frederick: What are you thoughts on the state of radio in the US?

Derek: Short answer, it's dead. Long answer... The corporations that own most of the stations in the US could give a shit about music. It's all about bottom line. And to them, America is the same no matter where you go. We're all a faceless horde of consumers, who will take whatever we're given. So now they have the SAME STATIONS in different cities with the SAME PLAYLISTS. "Keep them listening so we can sell more add time... Oh, this playlist works in LA, so it must work in Denver, and Atlanta, and Boston." And where do those playlists come from??? Dying major labels that don't want to invest in anything but a limited scope of "artists" because to be different is bad. Do what works until it doesn't work. Then do it again with a new hot young piece of ass and call it new. Ok, ok... yes, there are a handful of "indie" stations (most of which are owned by these same corporations) playing different blends of music. But they are few and far between.However, I don't really care all that much because I really don't do what I do to get played on KROQ or STAR or Teenie-Bopper-of-the-moment-.7 FM. If I could get on KCRW or other low budget indie eclectic shows, that would be cool. What was the question again?

DJ Frederick: What is a Moscow Coup Attempt live concert experience like?

Derek: I give everyone a gram of dried mushrooms at the door and we just stare at a bug-zapper set up in the middle of the room. Yeah, actually it's kind of like going to see a really loud art film. I play with laptop and synth and other toys to a film montage I cut to the music. It's all archival footage, really creepy images, some not, ancient war footage, NASA development shite...There's a trailer for it on the "Moscow" website. Eventually I'd like to get rid of most of the computer oriented pieces and replace them with real honest to monkeys people playing instruments that don't require wall sockets.

DJ Frederick: I’m wondering if you could talk about some of your film / visual projects?

Derek: Well, other than what I just described, I've written scores for a couple short films no one will see. Actually, one of them is a good little film about fathers and sons called "Ringside Hero," directed by John Covarrubias. There have been some video games I've written stupid little LimbBuzzcut style songs for. I'm also into photography... a lot of macro-lens laden images like the photos I did for the "Failure" album art. RIGHT NOW... I'm thinking about the next film I want to do for "the Coup." Where as I wrote this album thinking about cinema and it being music for "a movie that never was," I might go the other direction and write and film and music together. More of a narrative structure than abstract expressionism.

* * *

One listen to The Moscow Coup Attempt folds the listener into a world of “eyelid movies” and beyond. For sound samples, video and more information cruise over to www.moscowcoupattempt.com.

The Failure of Shortwave Radio is available to purchase from cd baby via www.cdbaby.com/cd/tmca

Derek's cd was released on Capitalist Records (somehow being a non-capitalist I love that name!) which has a website forthcoming at www.capitalistrecords.com. The image on the temporary page made me smile.

A brief intro to shortwave listening

2005-10-11T19:21:00.000-04:00

Shortwave listening (abbreviated SWLing) is tuning for radio stations located on shortwave frequencies, between 1710 kHz (the upper limit of the AM broadcasting band) to 30 MHz (the lower limit of the tuning range of most scanner radio). In between those two frequencies, a shortwave radio is capable of letting you hear news, music, commentaries, and other feature programs in English and other languages from stations located round the world.

Why bother listening to shortwave in this era of communications satellites and cable television news channels? Perhaps the biggest reason is that SWLing can give you a unique perspective on events that you simply cannot get from American media. If you watch coverage of an event in Iraq from CCN or CBS News, you get the American perspective on what is happening from an American journalist. If you listen to China Radio International, you might get a very different interpretation of events.

No one knows the exact number of shortwave listeners (SWLs) in the United States, most estimates place the number in the millions. Shortwave radio sales have increased dramatically in the US since September 11, 2001.

Of course, not all shortwave stations broadcast in English. If you’re studying a foreign language—or want to maintain your proficiency in one—shortwave radio will offer you an unlimited supply of contemporary practice material. If you enjoy music, shortwave will let you hear sounds you probably can’t find in the even the most specialized record and CD shops. Ever heard a lagu melayu song? It sounds like a cross between Indian-style instrumentals and an Arabic vocal style, and it’s very popular in Indonesia. You can hear such songs over the various shortwave outlets of Radio Republic Indonesia. The so-called "world beat" popular with young people had its origins in the "high life" music broadcast by shortwave stations in Africa. Other SWLs arise before dawn to catch the haunting huayno melodies coming from stations in Bolivia and Peru. Some SWL music fans have compiled tape-recorded libraries of folk and indigenous music from shortwave broadcasts that many college and university music departments would envy.

DXing (distance listening) is a manifestation of shortwave’s biggest weakness—the fact that shortwave reception is highly variable compared to the AM and FM broadcasting bands. Reception of a shortwave station on a given frequency will usually vary greatly with the time of day and season of the year. Shortwave reception is heavily influenced by solar activity as indicated by the number of sunspots visible on the Sun. Solar flares and storms can disrupt shortwave reception for hours and even days. Fading is also common on the shortwave bands. While shortwave can offer you listening you cannot find on your local AM and FM stations, it unfortunately cannot offer you the same reliable reception or audio quality from day to day or even hour to hour sometimes.

Many shortwave stations welcome correspondence from listeners, especially reports on how well the station is being received and comments on their programming. Stations often respond to such letters by sending out colorful souvenir cards, known as QSL cards, for correct reports of reception. Some station reply with QSL letters instead of cards, and a few send other items, like pennants with the station’s name or call letters, to lucky SWLs.

1420 kHz

2005-10-01T19:56:00.000-04:00

An interview with Pam Berry of UK indie folk pop band The Pines.

Tell me about your previous and present bands - when did you realise you were in love with music?

I realised music was the best thing since iced raisin bread long before I had any kind of involvement with making it myself. My parents had a big beautiful cabinet stereo that finally bit the dust only about a decade ago, the kind with the stack-o-vinyl spindle on the turntable. I've got an old Christmas polaroid from when I was three of me and my younger brother standing next to what must've been our first record player, with seven-inches without sleeves strewn about the place. Old record filing habits die hard!

The first band I sang in that put a record out was Black Tambourine. I couldn't sing very well but it didn't matter, writing songs and playing with friends was the best time ever. Every band I've been in since then has been the same ace situation of playing with friends and if I still lived in the US I'd hope to be playing music with the same people, I miss them! Speaking of those folks, lemme just say how many times a day I'm compelled to play When You Come Around by The Saturday People, can I get a witness?

I'm presently playing in The Pines with my friend and guitar wonder Joe. These days we record everything at home in my South London flat on a digital 16-track portastudio with my husband at the controls. Joe and I stay pretty busy with our jobs and don't see each other as much as we'd like, but we record more than we play out - we just played our first and last show of the year at what is turning into our annual live gig at the Bush Hall in London. I also join in when I can for Snowdrops recordings with Keith and Dick, who live in Brighton.

Which would you consider your 'day-job' band?

Don't make me laugh! Playing and recording is great but at the rate we do things, I'd be wiser to work on one of the ten gazillion other things that are more appealing than working 9 to 5, like world craft domination or starting London's foremost homemade pie delivery service.

Tell me a little bit more about the process of releasing Pines records - you've recorded for various labels - what is your relationship with them all?

The first Pines release was a song on a comp CD that came with an issue of Papercuts magazine that our friend Stevie put out in 2000. Our first seven-inch came out on the label Long Lost Cousin, which is run by Mark who currently plays in the fantastic Pipas. Mark used to record us on his Mac before Mike and I got the Akai, he wanted to start a label, I was keen to make some sleeves, and it was done. In the earlier days Joe and I didn't really work much on recording until someone asked us for songs, having some kind of deadline would kick our butts into recording action. We've been lucky because the labels who have asked us for songs like Becalmed, Annika, Foxyboy and Matinee have committed to putting out a Pines release and trusted that they'll like the songs without hearing them first! I've known Jimmy from Matinee for ages but still couldn't bring myself to tell him after we recorded that True Love Waits Volume 2's first song was a capella and the last song clocked in at 9 minutes, I just sent along the finished songs and hoped for the best. Only recently have we started recording songs that don't have a home yet.

How many volumes of the 'True Love Waits' eps will there be?

Volumes 1 and 2 are the whole shebang, Joe wrote the songs as a group, though we didn't record them all at once. A long time ago we got asked to release some songs on a new indie mini-CD label and decided to start recording the first half of the True Love Waits bunch of ten. When the label crashed and the record wasn't going to happen after all, Ara from Foxyboy offered to release the songs. Matinee then kindly offered to put out the second batch of five, which mirrored the first five nicely and completed the TLW set.

Did you start 'Chickfactor' with Gail O'Hara - or just work on it for a while? How did they come about?

I started Chickfactor with Gail in 1992 and though she did take on more of the reviewing burden and was a friend to the deadline in a way I never was, we were right there together transcribing, putting on shows, pasting candies and hair thingies on the covers and stapling pages together until I left after issue 11 in 1995. All told, Gail did put much more work into Chickfactor than I did (she hit people up for ads for instance, something I could never do) and though I miss doing a fanzine I really think of it as her mag. Good thing, then, that she carried on doing it after I left and now has a wonderful webspace devoted to it! Check it out for a complete history of Chickfactor, fab pictures by Gail and awesome web-only CF articles (like Peter Paphides waxing excited about choc!).

Do you and Joe have different ideas about how The Pines should sound? Is there any element of compromise when you're working together?

Joe and I have very similar ideas about how The Pines should sound, which is why recording is something I look forward to. We also have very similar ideas about how much lazing about should be done during any day of recording and how much cheese should go on top of the pasta bake made on the day of recording. Doing any kind of creative activity with someone else will always involve elements of compromise but we've yet to have fisticuffs over where the melodica fades out or anything like that, and since we have all our recording gear at home we have the luxury of trying things out different ways, without the pressure of time or expense that recording in a studio would have.

Would you like to be more prolific?

Yes, and not just in music. In music, I'd love to be recording more frequently and getting more Pines records out. In everything else, I'd love to finish even half of the projects I start and get my small biz up and running this year. More music, more bags, more gocco fabric stamping, more mass pierogi-producing and more hat-making!

Jose Gonzalez

2005-09-30T13:33:00.000-04:00

Jose Gonzalez is a brilliant singer/songwriter guitarist with a full length CD and 3 EPs available from www.parasol.com

Veneer is the debut album by Swedish-born minstrel José González…already a certified quiet-is-the-new-loud legend in his native Sweden. Who needs bells and whistles (outside of a forlorn trumpet and some subliminal percussion) when songs are this strong and the voice is this perfect? When all that you need to hold an audience in blissful rapture is what you can balance on a barstool? Jose’s sensual, sensitive, powerful vocals and supernaturally gifted guitar playing truly recalls artists like Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Hayden, and Mark Kozelek. He’s earned the accolades by writing incredible songs and staying true to his heart, keeping the songs barebones simple.

The José González song "Crosses" was featured on the season finale of The OC.U.S. press now rolling in:

Entertainment Weekly:"A Nick Drake manqué without — we hope — the suicidal tendencies, José González is a gifted Swedish singer-songwriter of Argentinean descent, whose deft, syncopated fingerpicking and hushed vocals are hypnotic on Veneer, and never more so than when he covers the Knife's ''Heartbeats,'' turning a synth-pop assault into a heartbreaking lullaby."

Harp Magazine:"A succinct acoustic meditation-11 cuts in 30 minutes-that includes hypnotic guitar figures (“Deadweight on Velveteen,” in particular) that create the feeling that you’ve stumbled into a pre-dawn workout for emerging finger-pickers..."

Chicago Tribune:"Everything about guitarist-songwriter Jose Gonzalez surprises you. The first surprise is that he's Swedish. Second, unlike most of his rock-crazed countrymen, Gonzalez's hushed, solo acoustic guitar work recalls the eclectic yet introspective "folk" of British troubadours Bert Jansch and Nick Drake... "Veneer" really is a kindred spirit to Drake's classic "Pink Moon"..."

Pitchfork:"It's taken two years for the debut album by singer/songwriter José González (Swedish, obv.) to reach these shores, and it's easy to see what nudged it here. González's sparse recordings showcase hushed, double-tracked vocals, haunted imagery, and a clearly gifted classical guitarist. His gripping acoustic cover of countryfolk the Knife's electro-pop "Heartbeats" was even a minor hit in his homeland. An ethereal, sometimes-aloof troubadour, González will sing you to sleep and then dash off under cover of night..."

Uncommon Folk:"Minimalism is the word on Veneer. Soft, hushed vocals, immaculate and brilliant guitar picking, and soft and subtle songs are the stuff that make up González’s work... Though very classical in style, though very personal in nature, Veneer sounds and feels new, with the ability to connect with new people and the new emotions of an ever-changing world..."Plenty of UK press to peruse as well: Time Out London: "Veneer displays an intense yet hushed talent, equally in thrall to the floating drone of post rock as to the elegant finger picking of Bert Jansch…"Uncut Magazine: "Mentioning a new artist in the same breath as Nick Drake has become shorthand for anyone with an acoustic guitar who favors melancholy restraint. Such a comparison, however, only hints at the talents of Jose Gonzalez. The Swedish singer-songwriter marries Drake’s mournful minimalism to deftly picked, Latino guitar. The results – melodic purity, a mesmeric rhythmic drive and stark emotionalism – are extraordinary."

Telegraph: "It's not just the dreamily introspective vocal and minor key melodies, the 11 songs of Veneer are all powered by Gonzales's mazily intricate guitar picking. He cites a mix of Beatles, flamenco, bossa nova and classical as his influences, but it's old Nick who springs to mind…[a] melancholy mood leavened by a very Drake-like fondness for playing cat and mouse with the beat."

Mojo Magazine: "Dark, still, yet oddly powerful elliptical folk songs that suggest Paul Simon’s Duncan or John Martyn’s Solid Air adrift in Arthur Russell’s "World of Echo"."

Q Magazine: "Lo-fi folk doesn't get any more exotic. 25-year-old Gonzalez was born and raised in Gothenburg to Argentinian parents, grew up listening to bossa nova and Joy Division, and deftly picks at his classical guitar with a flamenco flourish, singing in a hushed voice somewhere between Paul Simon and Nick Drake. Luckily, he's also very good. Occasionally, as on the gorgeous Heartbeats, his sparse music –just brooding guitar and double-tracked vocal—is uplifting. But the bulk of this 30-minute journey is downbeat, a little bit suicidal, and the most intimate music you'll hear all year."

All Music Guide:"Don't let the name fool you; singer/songwriter Jose Gonzalez is the Swedish born and raised son of Argentinean parents. His debut album, Veneer, is a striking collection of hushed and autumnal indie pop bedroom songs that reside on the hi-fi end of the lo-fi spectrum. Gonzalez is definitely a member of the "quiet is the new loud" school as founded by Elliott Smith and the Kings of Convenience. Veneer is about as intimate as they come; it sounds like he is sitting right on the end of your bed singing just for you. At times, Gonzalez is a little more forceful than most of his schoolmates, often working himself into a tightly spinning ball of emotion (as on the driving "Lovestain" and the bluesy "Hints"). At these moments his voice is reminiscent of Mark Kozelek, only without the wild flights of pretension. Mostly though, he is content to cruise along on mellow vocals double-tracked behind gently plucked and strummed acoustic guitars. The beautiful "Heartbeats," "Deadweight on Velveteen," and the gently rollicking "Stay in the Shade" are the high watermarks of a remarkably focused and promising debut."

maxi-zine mini review: 28 Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine

2005-09-13T20:27:00.000-04:00

Thank the god/dess I decided when I started this blog only to review music, etc. that I enjoy. Life is too precious, etc to waste on negativity. On that note I introduce you all to a complete delight - Christoph Meyer's 28 Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine. Yes it is bound with twine! If there is a more likeable zine publisher / writer, I can't wait to meet them, because Christoph is so personable in his writing I often feel like he is writing to me, personally. Actually Christoph has written to me, real letters! Christoph does not have email and intends to never go the way of electronic correspondence.

From issue #6 "My writing is idiosyncratic and not aimed at a mass audience. 28PLBwT is merely an outlet for me to publish what I feel moved to write. I just write what I like, send it out into the world where maybe someone will find something in it they like." This zine is a handmade labor of love, a work of art, and a joy to discover. Send $4 cash for the latest issue (#13) to Christoph Meyer PO Box 106 Danville OH 43014. Now!

Zine mini-review: Galatea's Pants

2005-09-13T18:25:00.000-04:00

Lauren Eggert-Crowe produces the well written zine Galatea's Pants ... issues of which come in various sizes and page counts and include everything from essays regarding the serious state of our consumerist culture to anti-war concerns, numerous illustrations, poetry, personal stories, articles on 'beauty', media, zine reviews and much more. For this aging hippie it's refreshing to know that the indie revolution is in good hands. Check out the Galatea's Pants website and order a few issues!

Mini zine mini review : Ker-bloom

2005-09-11T07:32:00.000-04:00

Ker-bloom! is published every two months by artnoose, a non-capitalist, progressive thinking craftsperson from San Francisco. Ker-bloom is very small (about 4 X 5 inches) and 12 pages each issue and made with loving care. Each issue contains a personal essay written by artnoose that relates an event or situation (from epic to banal and everything in between) and how it relates to the bigger picture in our culture. Ker-bloom is letterpress printed in an edition of 250 per issue.

I can't say enough about this zine which is so uniquely a labor of love. Although artnoose's writing sometimes lacks in emotional depth, she makes up for it in passion and spirit. Recent copies are available from www.parcellpress.com

Parcell Press

2005-09-10T20:50:00.000-04:00

One area of DIY media that I intend to explore more fully in this blog are "zines" ... usually low-tech self published magazines of varying content.

Zines have been around as long as the printing press. In the modern sense, zines arose on a number of fronts during the 1950s and 60s when inexpensive reproduction methods became more widely available to everyday people: poetry / literary magazines became more widely published thanks to Beat Generation writers; civil rights and political zines sprung up during the 1960s; music zines pressed into the forefront as the VietNam War rolled toward US pullout and punk/radical politics zines were all the rage shortly thereafter. Concurrently, very personal zines evolved that focus on a writer's experiences & reflections sometimes enhanced with fiction or poetry mixed in.

My favorite place to order zines is from Parcell Press at www.parcellpress.com. Taylor is a writer/publisher of a fantastic zine called Cultor-Sore. Taylor also runs a zine distribution service. The website is easy to navigate, informative, and includes a decent variety of zines. I have found Taylor to be very personable and highly recommend both his zine and the distro service.

Review of Cultor Sore #16: Taylor draws the reader into Cultor-Sore #16 immediately with his engaging writing style. This issue is written entirely by Taylor and is filled with reflections, vignettes and stories from his life. He says in the introduction “Everything in this zine is real. When I step away from this paper I can really hear my neighbor yelling at his dog. I really can suck into my lungs the salty gusts of wind that drive up from home. I really do worry a lot, celebrate a lot, miss people I love, and think about them endlessly. I really am me, and I really am here.” Every page in Cultor-Sore crackles with energy because Taylor’s writing is evocative and descriptive. He also includes interesting zine and music reviews. Order this issue from Parcell Press and prepare to be immersed.

Please stay tuned for more postings on zines, shortwave radio, pirate radio, my humble radio projects, musical excursions, and other forms of enlightenment!

Stolen Sharpie Revolution

2005-09-10T16:56:00.000-04:00

Stolen Sharpie Revolution is an essential guide to creating your own lost cost zines. This guide is simple to read, logically organized, and full of useful tips for DIY zine publishing. Information abounds on photocopying techniques, doing creative layouts, mail art, zine ettiquette, distributors, homemade paper, starting/working a distro, how to put out a record, how to make your own envelopes and stationary, binding ideas, cures for writers block and a list of resources. The price of this book is only $4!

Stolen Sharpie Revolution gets DJ Frederick's highest reccomendation. It is available from www.parcellpress.com or www.microcosmpublishing.com

The zine revolution is literally in your hands. Creative expression is not a spectator sport!

1220 kHz

2005-08-29T19:58:00.000-04:00

This is something I definitely want to turn readers and listeners onto: The Elemental Chrysalis is music by Chet W. Scott (RUHR HUNTER) & composer James Woodhead. The cd is housed in a 6" X 6" X 6" gatefold sleeve with wonderful woodland / psychedelic mushroom art. Musically The Elemental Chrysalis is unlike anything I've ever heard - and that is one of the highest compliments I could give a recording. The Glass Throat website states "Ponder one of Ennio Marricone's gloomy "spaghetti western" folkscapes, fused with a deeply unsettling Alexandro Jodorowsky film score! "The Calocybe Collection" is pregnant with "heavy" Elizabethan classical orchestrations & acoustic hallucinatory funeral drones! Imagine a Victorian Pink Floyd collaboration with a band of woodland gypsies, performing acoustic funeral doom!!! A beautifully intense experience, conjuring vast forests of fog quilted mushrooms & darkened paths of self discovery!!!". What more is there to be said?
This is music of powerful quietude and quiet power. Very earthy and very ethereal.

Instrumentation includes guitars, piano, cello, theremin, dilruba & more. Check out The Elemental Chrysalis & other excellent recordings at www.glassthroatrecordings.com

Robert Moog, 1934-2005

2005-08-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

Robert Moog, the inventor whose synthesiser electrified the 1960s, dies of cancer aged 71

By David Usborne in New York

Robert Moog would not be expecting pipes or strings when friends and admirers from across the music world assemble in Asheville, North Carolina, tomorrow to bid him farewell. If there is to be Bach at his memorial service, please let it be switched-on Bach, created with currents of electricity.

Just four months after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, Moog, the inventor of the series of music synthesisers that bore his name and helped to revolutionise modern rock sounds in the mid-Sixties and Seventies, died at his home in Asheville aged 71 on Sunday.

While other synthesisers may have been available, it was the Moogs to which bands and performers almost invariably turned. The Beatles used a Moog to record their last album, Abbey Road.

But more than anyone it was Walter Carlos - now Wendy following a sex change - who turned the Moog into a mainstream alternative to traditional instruments. His 1969 album Switched-On Bach, a collection of Bach pieces played with Moog machines, became the first classical album to go platinum. In 1977, we vibrated to the first completely Moog-synthesised pop hit, "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer.

Musicians chose the Moog because of the unique quality of sound it created. It soon began to serve as a solo instrument, particularly for artists such as Manfred Mann, Yes and Pink Floyd.

"The sound defined progressive music as we know it," said Keith Emerson, keyboards player with Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

It was back in 1954 that Moog first started his unusual career, building and selling so-called theremins with his father. Originally invented by a Russian of the same name in 1919, the theremin was a box that made strange musical sounds when the artist waved his hands between two protruding tubes. Ten years later, using new solid-state electronic technology and with the help of a New Jersey composer, Herbert Deutsch, he invented and marketed his first Moog Modular Synthesiser.

He can have had no idea at the time how far it would catapult popular music into its electronic future. According to friends, he never felt like a musician or a star himself. He was just a technician.

He sold his Moog-making company in 1974, just as the popularity of the new synthesisers was peaking and before they were somewhat overshadowed by new digital sound-making machines. But the Moog sound never died and was kept alive over the ensuing years by progressive rock musicians such as Brian Eno and Frank Zappa as well as the Cure, Fatboy Slim and Stereolab.

Last year a documentary film about the inventor, simply called Moog, was released with tributes to him from a range of artists including DJ Logic, Money Mark, Mix Master Mike, Jean Jacques Perrey and Rick Wakeman, formerly of Yes.

Meanwhile, in recent years the musician Charles Carlini has been promoting a festival in his honour in New York City called Moogfest.

"He's like an Einstein of music," Mr Carlini said, shortly before Moog's death. "He sees it like, there's a thought, an idea in the air, and it passes through him. A lot of people don't realise what this man brought to the masses. He changed the way we hear music."

After spending much of the Nineties as research professor of music at the University of North Carolina, Moog returned to running a full-time electronic instrument business, opening his latest company, Moog Music, just three years ago.

Four other inventions that changed the musical world:

PIANOFORTE
The piano was developed in 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco. Unlike the harpsichord, where the strings are plucked, the piano is a percussion instrument, which uses hammers to create the sound.

SAXOPHONE
The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax, and first exhibited at the 1841 Brussels exhibition. Originally intended as an orchestral instrument, it has transformed jazz.

ELECTRIC GUITAR
When the solid-body electric guitar first became commercially viable in the Fifties, Gibson approached the guitarist Les Paul to help develop a more stylish version. The Les Paul Model, as it was originally called, has changed little since its debut in 1952.

DRUMULATOR
The first Drumulator appeared in 1983, followed by drum machines from Linn and Oberheim, which paved the way for bass-heavy electronic music such as drum 'n' bass and house.

Popol Vuh

2005-08-17T17:44:00.000-04:00

Popol Vuh became a group at the end of the 1960's thanks to
the figure of keyboard player Florian Fricke, who was also interested in the cinema. They recorded mostly in the 1970's
but released LPs sporadically through the 1990's.

With their first record, Affenstunde, the group (in that period it was just a trio with Holger Trulzsch on the percussion and Frank Fiedler at the sinthetizer) was included among cosmic music of Tangerine Dream but they distinguished themselves by their remarkable spiritualism. That record was the first one made by a group of rock music using the big Moog (not the mini-Moog).

Their next work In Den Garten Pharaos signed a more radical division between their own music and the clichè of cosmic music. Title-track begins with an apocalyptical atmosphere, an emphatic organ and chorus overture such as King Crimson; but percussions, wich are less and less linear up to become a psychedelic effect of frenetic noises and the prolonging organistic "wall", made that endless swoon a supernatural experience. So doing Fricke blends epic chaos of A Saucerful Of Secrets (noisy percussions plus ghostly choir) with indian mantra ecstasy.

Having disowned "black" tribalism of teutonic rock, Vuh is a masterpiece of atmospheric and celestial spiritualism, it is quite similar to a grave and humble church music. It is a rustling noise, a no time electronic vocalism, a tabla whispering with paradisiac notes. This ceremonial goes slowly in a disquieting emptiness according to the millionary rhythm of universe. Fricke's music explores metaphysical dens towards the essence of things looking for the interior sounds of oriental guru.
The best exemple of this new expression has been given by the Hosianna Mantra mess. Fricke's liturgy gives up to the magniloquent electronic of Tangerine Dream and discovers a more intimal and closed tone where cosmic music is considered universal harmony instead of sketch of science fiction, a "fioretto francescano" instead of symphonic hurricane, just like catharsical human music. Fricke's acoustic mysticism approaches ancient and modern music obtaining right music to space catacombs.

Hosianna Mantra's miraculous balance between sacred and profane, liturgic and laic, future and past, is the first one in popular music history (nothing to compare with Electric Prunes). Fricke (piano) and his classical group (Conny Veit, guitar, Robert Eliscu, oboe, Fritz Sonnleiter, violin, Klaus Wiese, tamboura, and Djong Yun, soprano from Korea) create a dreaming and crystal atmosphere, weak and fading, perfumed and charming. This group can be considered a small ensemble of chamber music.

The emotional crackling of instruments and slow melodies contribute to the restoration of natural order, in the name of a revision which refuses violence as instrument of liberation and leads to a state of huge ecstasy. Ah! intensive opening notes of piano seem to communicate at a distance with cembalo and violin so to build up a complete repeated scheme with infinitive variations.

Kyrie is an oniric whispering and its struggle lirics plunge into a thin rain of tamboura, piano and oboe. Eponymus mantra is a nervous crescendo of heavenly chords fluctuating without cohesion and dominated by oboe's melodies. Oboe is the leading instrument of Abschied, with a sad melody well connected to Renaissance dance theme, executed in ralenti.

But Segnung and Nicht Noch Im Himmel go back to "freeform" accompainment because of soprano's humble chant, with more and more humble and lyric prayers (in particular the second one, the more celestial and oniric of the whole album), alternating sometimes the guitar. Melody is reduced to the essential, a phrase continually repeated, and rhythm is almost completely inexistent.

Hosianna Mantra overturns the link between rock music and its traditional ispirations, infact they can all found among Indian folk, Renaissance chant, Baroque suite, Gregorian liturgy. Hosianna Mantra is the masterpiece of religious rock too, infinitely more genial than raga rock of Santana and others.

Accompanied by the devoted Daniel Fishelsher and by always different musicians, Fricke compose the mystic trilogy of Seligpreisung, Einsjager und Siebenjager and Das Hohelied Salomos, all extracted from sacred books. Having left the radical ascetism of the masterpiece, the music uses a compromise, but preserving its own simplicity.

Letzte Tage Letze Nachte, in trio again, finally changes direction, looking for a more easy and rhythmical sound, although lyric and maestoso. The monumentality and the arcane fascination of this suite link toghether to the requirements of cinema. Not by chance, Fricke becomes a devoted partner of director Werner Herzog, and composes many soundtracks for him ("Aguirre", "Kaspar Hauser", Coeur De Verre", "Nosferatu", "Fitzcarraldo", "Cobra Verde"). The best ones are Aguirre (in two parts) and Sohne Des Lichts (from "Nosferatu").

Later Fricke composed faint works, in particular Die Nacht Der Seele with Renate Knaup (ex Amon Duul) as singer. He comes back to Hosianna Mantra inspiration with the Tantric Songs, a collection of small chamber mantra and melodic sketches such as Harold Budd style (Listen He Who Ventures). The long Brothers Of Darkness has got a kind of unique brightness that is not evident in the first works, although its singing is sterile, according to a new tendency in the new age era.

Agape Agape suite (on the eponymous album) and Take The Tension High (on Spirit Of Peace) represent a period of transition ending with kinematical sound of City Raga, with Maya Rose as singer, Daniel Fischlscher at the guitar and Guido Hyeronymus at the keyboards.

Popol Vuh was an important band for having reacted to the cosmic monumentalism of german rock works of mere lyric suggestion, recovering a way of making music within the rhythm of ancestral origin.

1130 kHz

2005-08-12T21:22:00.000-04:00

It recently occured to me that I've never actually discussed in this blog exactly what kind of music I play on Seldom Heard Radio. I frequently post playlists to give readers a taste of the range you might hear during the broadcast. On the air I announce the show as "a freeform blend of esoteric music from the 1960's to the present". This isn't 100% true because I've played music from the 1930's, 40's and 50's (in small doses) as well over the years.

Because I love a variety of music it's easier for me to explain what you won't hear on Seldom Heard Radio. What you won't hear: rap, 95% of what has been called "country" music (since 1975 anyway), gospel music (though I have played less heavy handed Christian bands before) commercial pop ala Britney Spears, and klezmer music. Everything else is fair game.

I prefer "indie" music ... non-commercial music of all genres performed by people who have a passion for their craft. I also go wild for psychedelic folk music which has been called wyrd folk. During any given broadcast you could hear anything from R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders to the Thievery Corporation all in the same set!

Red Favorite

2005-08-08T17:20:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, Jeremy Pisani sent me a copy of his self-released debut cd which will soon be issued by Spirit of Orr. I listened to it a couple of times and placed it in my "must play on Seldom Heard Radio" stash of cds but haven't actually revisited the cd until recently. Recorded between 1996 and 2003, this selection is a gem.

The cd opens with "Starry Sky" which is like listening to a radio broadcast from another time magically intended for your ears only. The next piece "First" opens like a dreamy raga and evolves toward deeper meditations. By the 5th track "Green Hill Beach" we move into a bluesy psychedelic freakout that segues into a quiet electric guitar passage. The 12th track is a mystery track that is reminiscent of Fischbach & Ewing's underground classic 3LP set A Cid Symphony.

This Red Favorite cd is psychedelic folk music at it's purest and resonates a timeless quality to immerse yourself in. For more information please see www.redfavorite.com.

Jeremy is also involved with the cd-r label Elefantplatte Records which is unearthing some very cool seldom heard music from the vaults of the mind. These are the types of projects that I feel like a little kid in a record store when I come across them ... it's a warm glow to know someone is re-discovering this excellent yet obscure music and releasing it in the DIY spirit.

Psych folk / wyrd folk music part one

2005-08-04T21:18:00.000-04:00

The evolution of new Wyrd Folk Music by Mark Coyle

Chapter 1 - Let's Awake The Green Man

With this article we will explore the emergence of a new alternative folk music, often called for want of a better description, ‘wyrd folk’. This music builds on the foundations of bands like Incredible String Band, Pearls Before Swine and Vashti Bunyan from the 60s and 70s to create a new more personal folk derived music that brings in a range of influences from outside. Often strange, psychedelic, mystical, exploratory and sonically more ambitious than the original form, this music takes the tradition into new realms.

This is not a form of folk music that grew from the folk clubs, reads the folk magazines or has connection or often is more than casually aware of important past and current traditional folk artists. In the strict sense much of it is not traditional folk music as purists would know it, but the instrumentation, crafting of the songs, the telling of stories and the outsider position often adopted all use this form to help the artist express their vision. With the strict need of the media to tag music with genres, we hope that being associated and part of a new folk evolution will help them find natural audience and in turn refresh the music reflecting it’s continuous change over previous decades.

The media overuse of the phrase 'wyrd folk' to try and pigeon hole these artists unduly restricts them and we use the term merely to draw a comparison between the alternative acoustic music of the sixties and the possible similarities of recent artists in intent and sound, even is this is unforeseen and accidental by the artist.

We hope to show in the article that the current explosion of interest in this music is not new but has been evolving for twenty years from the underground. Inevitably we cannot cover every artist in such an article but we have attempted to be reasonably broad in coverage and to give a feeling for the evolution of the genre. Indeed this site was developed to provide a linkage between folk music old and new and to make more explicit its context and relevant to old traditional customs and folklore (of which more here).

As we explore the new folk related artists we do not support or express any views on the religious, spiritual or political aspects of any artists.

Introduction

In 1980 folk music was withering, the rise in folk rock in the late sixties and early seventies had given rise to some chart success but the commercial focus had moved ever onwards to progressive rock, punk and new wave. In the era of emerging cheap synth-pop and two minute bursts of electric guitar energy folk music suddenly seamed old fashioned. Traditional folk music had continued in the pubs and clubs it’s image by now was of fingers-in-the-ear and beards for the mainstream. Folk music was ignored, ridiculed and deemed irrelevant. As the eighties progressed new wave gave way to indie and power rock and artists such as Shirley Collins retired. A revival in folk music did not seem close at hand....

Psych folk / wyrd folk music part two

2005-08-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

The Evolution of New Wyrd Folk Music by Mark Coyle

Chapter 2 - All The Stars Are Waking Now

UK underground artists who appreciated folk music were starting to emerge, informed by interests in the evolution of society, spiritual development, the gothic and sometimes magical exploration.

In particular the inspirational song-writer performer David Tibet previously of Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo with his band-project Current 93 originally created a series of personal, exploratory, atmospheric albums from the mid-1980s onwards that fused folk, gothic (in the original sense of the word), strong use of imagery and experimentation. New comers should check out 1992 album ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ as good introduction to what became tagged ‘apocalyptic-folk’. So unique and new was his sound and style that it inevitably influenced others both in the UK and overseas. However David Michael (dropping the 'Tibet' name) is now taking Current 93 in a new direction, towards a positive, life embracing approach that moves on from the earlier explorations.

Around this time a number of UK artists emerged with elements of this apocalyptic folk music such as Death In June. Tony Wakeford of the band subsequently left and formed the band Sol Invictus charting his own personal explorations, also playing in Current 93. These artists produce highly conceptualised works that are not folk based but use elements of the form mixed with spiritual and complex political thought. Also worth checking out from this era are The Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus who also produced intoxicated, doom filled folk that is surprisingly Christian in outlook.

Also associated with David Tibet back in the early 1990s and having contributed to Current 93 albums were a number of artists. Fire and Ice is a band led by Ian Read also sometimes of Sol Invictus and Michael Cashmore’s Nature And Organisation. Nature & Organisation did a couple of albums in particular ‘Beauty Reaps The Blood Of Solitude’ which contained dark apocalyptic folk and a definitive version of Willow’s Song from The Wicker Man at a time when the original was more or less unavailable. Pantaleimon also supported initially by Tibet recorded lovely, largely instrumental albums of drifting, almost ambient folk.

The early imagery of some of the so called 'apocalyptic folk' is based on a feeling that Western society has failed and that rampant capitalism is removing our humanity. They were exploring a feeling that Western society is in a consumer goods fed slumber, removing the free will of the people and hence their ability to realise personal potential. Therefore the people need confronting out of their complacency and to challenge the decline of their society. The decline of the 'West' is at the heart of the music and the alternative model offered by a diverse Europe in contrast to the USA approach is explored. However often all forms of oppression such as political bureaucracy or organised religion are seen as part of the problem. There is a feeling that the simpler forms of existence prior to modern complex society may be a more viable approach to living. This decline of society, a removal of societal structures back to simpler models is the 'apocalypse' at the heart of the music. Over time this generalisation fell away and artists began a long personal journey not only into the state of their external environment but also regarding their own evolution as people, the internal drives and frustrations inherent within them.

It is impossible now to generalise, each artist is expressing a personal approach or ethos. The level of frustration and anger by the artists varies, some use allegorical imagery and a need for spiritual reawakening via non-conformist techniques as their approach. Other are more direct and see this as a battle of wills, showing people the oppressed society they live in via totalitarian imagery, with some artists talking about renewed European war to confront this hypnosis over the populace and revival of 'old' traditional models of living. This is not meant literally in almost all cases but is a symbolic struggle, a call to awakening rather than a crusade.

Exploring sentiments that are meant to be empowering but using confrontational imagery or themes can mean they are interpreted literally and associated with the very topics they decry such as fascism (another organised oppression). To be best of our knowledge this is not the case and they are working at a symbolic level, using techniques to shock people in the same way punk did (which this is in part an enduring continuation). In its own way it's a continuation of the punks using swastikas but usually in a more subtle (and hence easy to confuse) way. We do though we feel that any exploration of a folk 'purity' must be done with caution if at all as it leads towards confused areas that became associated the far-right and nationalism, topics we repudiate at the site (and the musicians themselves are not affiliated with).

We therefore advise people exploring this area of music to set it in the context described above and not to take it as a literal expression of political intent. Indeed these artists often abhor politics themselves and if they have in their impetuous youth been drawn towards extremities of politics and expression, as they mature and leave these flirtations behind they enrich their creativity with a more intelligent, insightful creative debate about the position of modern society.

In terms of the UK, the concept of 'apocalyptic folk' is a broadly historical one, there was never a scene as such, just artists working together who has since developed further. They gradually have each evolved a more personalised expression, often centred around spiritual growth. For example Current 93 themselves quickly left behind these qualities and moved towards personalised, stark folk ballad confessional style that evolved the form in an individual way gradually seeming to grow beyond their early explorations. We particularly look forward to their future output with the focus on a more positive approach.

In mainland Europe an entirely separate area of folk related music emerged which was explicitly more dark by intent, using Norse paganism and seeking a direct link beyond simpler society to ancient, even savage models. This is often called 'folk noir' or even 'black folk' (especially as many of the musicians were previously involved in the black metal area of music). Here it does seem that the artists 'mean it' and their lyrics are all the more disturbing. This is music we feel particularly uncomfortable with and generally do not cover at the site.

The eighties also saw other artists emerge who would prove helpful in bringing forward a climate that would slowly become more receptive to folk music and the psychedelic once again. In the UK Dead Can Dance combined medieval music with elements of folk and soundscapes to help give credibility to a more acoustic, alternative sound. In particular on tracks like 'Black Sun' they were creating a new style of doom filled acoustic music with direct parallels to folk music. Lisa Goddard would go on to solo success, notably on the Gladiator film soundtrack and Brendan Perry works in production and also solo.

Also important then and now was musician Martyn Bates formerly of experimental independent pop band Eyeless In Gaza. From the late 1980s onwards he has combined lonesome avant-folk music with cold isloationist ambience across a wide series of albums. A mid-period album of his that brings together many qualities of his work is ‘Glistening Praise’.

Things had also started to slowly turn in the mid-1980s as some artists sought a different path to the spandex-rock of the time. With acoustic rockers The Waterboys recording a folk oriented album in Fishermen’s Blues and in particular a mystical last track that was a stunning version of W.B. Yeats’ ‘The Stolen Child’. Suicidal Flowers combined sixties garage pop and folk music ballads and other artists emerged later from the festival circuit combining progressive rock, folk touches and celtic or pagan stylings elements such as White Willow and Morrigan developed a new pagan influenced folk-rock music.

In Japan the psychedelic folk band Ghost were starting their long journey into mind melting rock and lysergic folk captured brilliantly on the Pink Floyd-folk combination of 'Snuffbox Immanence' . This Mortal Coil also did a quite sublime version of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song To The Siren’ with Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins singing that created a new highly atmospheric approach to folk.

Folk music was still a long way from the mainstream but these first formative developments and a revival of interest in artists such as Nick Drake would sow the seeds for the growth to follow.

Note: for much more of this article (four more parts!) please see the Color Wheel blog at www.colorwheeljournal.blogspot.com

Folklore of the Moon - In Gowan Ring

2005-08-01T18:16:00.000-04:00

The Folklore of the Moon – May’s “Flower Moon!”

This month’s 3” cd-r offering from Hand / Eye’s subscription series is by “In Gowan Ring” and offers 21 minutes of entrancing and enchanting folk-psych. Five tracks that blend and flow into one another … This is music for an ancient future, or from deep within an oaken grove. In Gowan Ring can be found on the web at www.ingowanring.com

For more information on the Folklore of the Moon series, contact: Hand/Eye PO Box 131 Glenville PA 17329-0131 or visit www.somedarkholler.com.

1040 kHz

2005-07-28T10:03:00.000-04:00

Prominent in my record collection is one of only 1,000 copies pressed of Greg Murray's debut 7" vinyl EP released via Elefant Records in Spain. I read about this record some time ago while browsing Tonevendor www.tonevendor.com for new vinyl releases (if you have browsed this blog you probably realize I'm a vinyl junkie) and bought a copy based upon the description alone. Often my intuition pays off and this time was no exception! Greg Murray's songs embody everything I enjoy about indie music - deeply felt lyrics, inventive melodies, songs that keep playing in your head long after the first listening. The first song "Go Honey" is timeless, with a hint of psychedelia that might have been right at home on AM radio back in 1970 yet is completely original and engaging. "Edge" features folk-ish guitar, harmonica, and minimalist druming that weave together perfectly. All four songs on this EP illuminate and expand one's musical consciousness. Greg has recorded several other EPs (equally excellent) and a more recent full-length CD "Tymes Ten". For more information including free MP3s (thank you!) check out Greg's informative and comprehensive website at www.gregmurray.co.uk

The One AM Radio

2005-07-21T17:55:00.000-04:00

One of the things I hope to accomplish with this blog, as well as my radio broadcasts, is to broaden readers' / listeners musical horizons. I want to turn people on to the very overlooked indie "band" The One AM Radio. The One AM Radio is the moniker of songwriter / musician Hrishikesh Hirway & occasional guests. His songs are heartfelt, introspective, bordering on melancholy and minimalism ... with beautiful melodies and sentiments, sometimes swells of strings or (mostly) unintrusive electronic effects.

I've managed to obtain most of The One AM Radio's recordings (several are out of print). "Night Falls" is my favorite, a split CD-EP with the Wind-Up Bird and its standout track "All That I Can Recall Is the Haunting":

i could not see the horizon
the seas had swallowed up the skies
the wind died down, and the world turned silent
the fog rolled back before my eyes
diffuse blue light swelled all around us
like water at once both clear and deep
i called to you over and over,
but you would not come out from sleep
voices rose up in a chorus
in a song of longing and what could be
i closed my eyes, but i could see you
oh Light, please stay with me.

For more info on The One AM Radio including mp3 downloads visit www.theoneamradio.com

Radio Free Brattleboro cd

2005-07-20T19:36:00.000-04:00

Given everything that Radio Free Brattleboro is going through right now, it would be a good time to show them some support & pick up a copy of the RFB Live In-Studio Performances CD available at www.cdbaby.com This compilation has been a favorite of mine since its release and includes the following tracks:

1) Smiley Bob Project - Radio Free
2) Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett of Little Feat - Down on the Farm
3) Greg Brown - Bucket
4) Louise Taylor - Call My Name
5) Darryl Purpose - A Crooked Line
6) Bethanie w/Phil Bloch - Water Run Deep and Wide
7) Adrian Crowley - A Northern Country
8) Derrik Jordan - Invitation to Ecstasy
9) John Hughes - Bamba Bojang
10) California Guitar Trio - Circulation
11) Euphony Groove - Bemoan
12) Ill Wind Ensemble - Broken Chord
13) Elevator Tribe - Static Between the Stations
14) Mountain of Venus - The Bridge
15) Relative Strangers - Same Undone
16) Gordon Stone & Michael Daves w/Phil Bloch - Sunday Driver
17) Dexter Grove - 3 am
18) Reed Foehl & Putnam Murdock - Come September
19) The Mammals - Quite Early Morning

Every track on this compilation is excellent. It starts out with a rolicking free radio folk anthem by the Smiley Bob Project which I have played many times on Seldom Heard Radio & the cd just evolves from there. With music as diverse and enjoyable as this emanating from the airwaves, radio is alive again. Alas, the fate of Radio Free Brattleboro hangs in the balance of the courts. For the latest: www.rfb.fm

The history and evolution of Seldom Heard Radio part one

2005-07-20T07:33:00.001-04:00

Deep in the recesses of my childhood memories, I spent many hours exploring my father’s “cavern” in the basement of our suburban house – his electronic repair shop, which smelled of must and damp and solder. His work benches were strewn with the chasis of televisions & radios, and mysterious tubes of all sizes. At some point in my early childhood – I think it was around the age of eight, I simultaneously started collecting 7” vinyl records (the first record I ever bought was Atlantis by Donovan)… and heard a shortwave radio which had been brought in for repairs. The deep tones and unfamiliar languages intrigued me, as did the static and strange noises between the stations. The airwaves were alive.

This is one of the hazards of starting a “blog” … it’s part journal, part news, part advocating. This whole musing was triggered by a letter from John Campbell of Devon, UK who heard Seldom Heard Radio on 6235 kHz in April via Jolly Roger Radio International in Ireland. He said, in part “I’ll be very interested in … any information about the history and style of programming of your station …”Alas, John, you may get more information in these posts than you expected!

My initial encounter with shortwave was quickly forgotten, unfortunately, as I focused on “dx’ing” (distance listening) medium wave (AM band) stations in the US. As a child I spent hours tuning in stations from as far away as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Nashville, Canada and even Mexico. Around this time, my local AM station, WFEA had a sort of underground 60s pop and rock format, and I became determined to hang out at the station if I could. I rode the five miles across the river on my bike, and found that a couple of DJs would actually talk to me! Years later I learned that my father had played cowboy music live on WFEA in the late 1930s before he was stationed in India during World War II..

As I became ten, eleven, twelve, friends of mine & I would play “DJ”, rigging up homemade Radio Shack transmitters, or recording music and shows onto monolithic tape recorders. Back then we could get an AM signal out almost a quarter of a mile by rigging our crystal set … and we were triumphant. Thus the seeds of Seldom Heard Radio were planted …

The history and evolution of Seldom Heard Radio part two

2005-07-18T13:27:00.001-04:00

In the summer of 1977, I spent two months at the University of New Hampshire taking summer courses. Immediately, I gravitated toward the radio station, WUNH, which I discovered was being run by a scruffy looking guy with a two day old beard who didn’t speak much but would run in every few minutes to throw on another record. When I offered to help him out, he was thrilled --- I could play any music I wanted but had to play requests if anyone called. No problem.

I felt like I had just been handed the keys to the kingdom and embarked on doing something I always wanted to do if given the chance to be a DJ --- play entire LPs at a time. So listeners to 91.3 that summer were treated to my already eclectic taste in music --- From the Mars Hotel by the Grateful Dead … Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells … Eat a Peach by the Allman Brothers … Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks … the phone rang several times a day but not for requests … people were calling thanking me for playing certain LPs or just for playing music they couldn’t hear on other stations. I was delighted.

By 1978 I was becoming a serious teenager and thinking of college, work, and more work. I didn’t have much to do with radio except for listening to WSLE, a freeform community station in Peterboro NH, where in the course of an hour one could hear local musicians, acoustic music, celtic, reggae, rock, and even jazz. It was sweet bliss until WSLE was sold in 1981 and the format changed to … disco! There was so much outrage from listeners in New Hampshire and Vermont that a non-profit was formed, Concerned Citizens for Responsible Radio, to protest the sale and see what could be done to restore WSLE to its rightful “format”. Legend has it that Tim Tobin, one of the WSLE DJs, on his last shift played “Stairway to Heaven” and drove away from the studio, letting the turntable drift out to the LP’s end grooves, and all that could be heard on the frequency (92.1) until the new station owner arrived was the steady static of ‘click click click’ at the end of the record.

The Seldom Heard Radio story picks up again in 1999 … but that’s another post.

The history and evolution of Seldom Heard Radio part 3

2005-07-18T09:24:00.001-04:00

In Y2K, the Universe converged to lead me back to my intrigue with radio. Quite by accident, in the early part of the year, I noticed a program guide for the local college station, WSCS, in the weekly shopper that arrives in the mail like clockwork each Thursday. I had never heard of WSCS and decided to give the station a listen. Looking over the program schedule I was hooked --- no commercials, new age and celtic music, folk shows, WSCS had to be special. And I felt I had something to offer via my eclectic knowledge of music.

I wrote a letter to the Program Director offering my services as a volunteer DJ. Within a week, he called, we arranged to meet, and before I knew it, I was trained in the stations policies and equipment and running a broadcast of my own every Sunday.

But what to call the show? Color Wheel Radio (after the literary journal I co-edit)? I wanted to play mostly obscure music, artists rarely heard on the airwaves. Numerous names floated through my mind … then I thought (bizarrely) of a old bluegrass / country band called the Seldom Scene … and since the music I wanted to feature was seldom heard … the pun stuck and the name was born. Life was good, the tunes were awesome, and little did I realize the realm of shortwave radio was waiting for my rediscovery …

The history and evolution of Seldom Heard Radio part four

2005-07-18T01:04:00.001-04:00

Just as Seldom Heard Radio was debuting on WSCS in 2000, I was re-connecting and rediscovering the magic of radio on so many levels --- learning about propagation, the physical properties of electricity, production of radio waves, etc … I started researching radio stations and broadcasting alternatives around the world … and rediscovered shortwave listening.

My first shortwave radio was a Radio Shack DX 394 which miraculously brought back all of the bleeps and squelches and static-filled sizzles of my childhood radios. Within weeks I decided that I had to bring Seldom Heard Radio and other projects to the shortwave spectrum. Within another few weeks I was creating programs for broadcast on WBCQ The Planet (7415 kHz) and WRMI (7385 kHz). These were very low-tech homemade shows full of obscure music and minimal announcing. On WRMI I experiment with other formats including co-producing a show called "The Drive-In Double Feature" with DIY shortwave host B-Movie Bob, where we played and discussed music from B movies of the 50s, 60s & 70's.

Listener response was sporadic yet positive, and soon I had extended Seldom Heard Radio to shortwave in Europe via Radio 510 International. From Europe, the floodgates of listener feedback opened, and I received dozens of letters from happy (if somewhat musically perplexed and bewildered) listeners. Correspondence arrived from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, England, Belgium, the Netherlands. People in Europe seem to take radio more seriously, and, also seem more motivated to make it more of a two-way exchange of communication. I was delighted.

Over the course of a few short years life and activity and energy levels intervened and I decreased the shortwave broadcasts to focus on production of my local FM program. Yet Seldom Heard Radio was going to evolve again … via the internet and Radio Lavalamp. Stay tuned for that chapter … and more.

Dx'ing with Cumbre

2005-07-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

Part of the purpose of this blog is to encourage people to learn about and take an interest in shortwave radio. One of the best programs in production related to what's happening in shortwave is Dx'ing with Cumbre. The show is hosted by Marie Lamb and contains a wealth of listening tips and up-to-date information on stations and programs broadcasting on the shortwave spectrum. For more information surf to www.cumbredx.org on where and when you can hear this weekly program or for streaming audio.

Media Minutes

2005-07-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

Every week during my broadcast I include the five minute news update called Media Minutes. Hosted by John Anderson and Kimberlie Kranich, Media Minutes focuses on the latest info regarding FCC regulations and policies, legislative and legal issues, Low Power FM stations, PBS and NPR, telecommunications coporations, microbroadcasting, and trends in commercial and non-commercial media. The program is free to download at www.freepress.net.

WOOL Black Sheep Radio

2005-07-13T21:07:00.000-04:00

While the news from Brattleboro is grim, with Radio Free Brattleboro still off the air, just a few miles north on Rte 91 in Vermont the community of Bellows Falls has a new licensed LPFM station broadcasting at 100.1. WOOL! check them out at www.wool.fm. Their website contains in depth info on the organization and happenings at the station. Congratulations, WOOL!

Revenge of the Lawn?

2005-07-13T10:42:00.000-04:00

Many years ago I watched a documentary called “Lawns” on PBS and was fascinated by people’s obsession with their yards. Although I had done my share of yardwork in my life, was even part of a groundskeeping crew once in my youth, I never developed this affinity with having the perfect yard. Watching this program, the infinite variety of grasses, care techniques, tools, landscape designs were staggering. Yet everyone they interviewed seemed so rigid about their lawn care routines and practices, it was almost frightening. In fact they showed one home with a ‘natural’ lawn … people who believed nature was intended to be its own creation, to flourish without human intervention. Their neighbors almost unanimously despised this couple, or assume they were lazy or uncaring about the community, simply because their lawn was different. An eyesore, they called it. One neighbor on their block commented “well, it’s a free country” and that’s about as much support as that couple ever got.

In the never-ending battle with lawnmowers and weed whackers, I’m the losing party. Every single time I get my lawn mower repaired, it dies again within minutes. When it is functioning properly, we get a week of rain. The weed whacker was running just fine until it ran out of twine. Upon my arrival back from the hardware store I learned the motor had seized up somehow.

My neighbors on the right, left, and across the street amaze me with their riding mowers. Every man on this street owns a riding lawn mower other than me! How do they afford it? Their shiny green John Deeres look as if they had been just moments ago been driven out of the showroom. And these men are outside mowing practically every single day! Rain, shine, wind, bitter cold, humidity, one-hundred degrees … they tend their lawns as if they are shrines to civilization itself, as if the whole social order would collapse if a single blade of grass were left uncut. Where do these men find all this time to lavish on their lawns when they have businesses, children, lives to pursue? I wonder if they pay as much rapt attention to their kids’ and spouses’ needs.

Around the same time as seeing the Lawns documentary on PBS I watched another documentary on PBS called Sherman’s March. It was filmed by Ross McElwee, who had intended to walk in the footsteps of General Sherman’s armies and document the still-lingering effects of the civil war over a century later. Instead, his girlfriend broke up with him just prior to filming and the project became an odyssey of introspection and documenting his feelings as he traveled. The effect is brilliant. Through McElwee’s cinema verite style we discover his flaws, his idealization of women, his longing for companionship yet reserved, aloof, self-absorbed nature.

One minor point of the film showed a group of men who had some other fixation with lawns – specifically lawn ornaments. In the stealth of night, they would sneak into one another’s yards and steal lawn decorations. These were not just any lawn ornaments, these were giant plastic and plaster large-as-life representations of dinosaurs, elephants, moose, and other wild animals. I guess this was a whole new spin on the ‘steal the garden gnome’ phenomenon.

The pirate spirit inside me was laughing as I watched these men make their strategies and in the cover of darkness wrestle gigantic icons into pickup truck beds and trailers. No doubt it was a fun game, knowing that tomorrow, your buddy just might sneak off with your favorite tyrannosaurus from beside the pool, or your entire mutant flamingo collection, and you might have to triple your vigilance. Now that kind of activity could make me fond of lawns, and their keepers.

Musings from a Saturday Afternoon

2005-07-10T20:30:00.001-04:00

Every Saturday afternoon at 2 pm I drive the 20 miles along route 103 then route 114 to Henniker NH from beautiful downtown Warner. The route is thankfully a scenic one with minimal traffic, and on a sun-filled day is a refreshing and engaging opportunity to contemplate what I will do during the broadcasts each week.

Part of me holds a pirate's spirit, and if ever there were an 'almost' pirate station, it is WNEC. Yes it is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, yet the station is hardly ever on the air. In fact, perusing the station log today revealed that WNEC had been off the air since last Saturday at 9 pm when Kristin, WNEC's music director, signed off for the evening.

As my shift progressed, and I was sinking into the sublime groove of jazzy tunes (a kind of different mood for my shows), I realized the right channel indicator was not moving. Checking the radio outside the broadcast booth, the LED display confirmed only one channel was being received. So, if anyone was listening, they would hear the program in monaural at best and through only one speaker at worst. A discussion with Kristin revealed that the station also had this technical glitch this last week. She left a note for the station manager but nothing had been done. I was assured this technical difficulty could continue for weeks or months without intervention. My memory flashed back to a series of months when WNEC was only audible as far as the parking lot.

The phone is usually quiet when I'm on the air. I wonder who, if anyone, is listening. And if someone is listening, are they catching the vibe I'm sending out? Do they feel the intent behind the flow of music, the smattering of media news that I read, the frequent references to 'free' radio?

WNEC is a 150 watt station and my Grundig 800 picks the signal up crisp and clear at home, some 14 miles away (as the crow flies). There is something primal and beautiful about radio signals and hearing stations that are ephemeral ... there ... and then gone. That's what attracts me to pirate radio and shortwave listening. WNEC embodies the "FM" version of that primal attraction. A reminder that not everything is perfectly timed or scheduled in the world, that honest media is fragile, a product of human hands and hearts. Sometimes the silences between transmissions are more powerful than sound itself.

Moondog!

2005-07-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

Moondog was a street musician and poet who hung around the 52nd to 54th Street area and around the old Madison square Garden in Manhattan in the 40's and 50's, through to the 70's. He often dressed in Viking regalia considering himself to be Nordic in sensibility. His costume would consist of homemade robe, sandals, a flowing cape, a horned Viking helmet, with a long spear of his own manufacture in his hand. Passers-by called him "the Viking of Sixth Avenue". Reaction to this garb was to hamper his musical development due to him being considered a crank. In later years he was persuaded to abandon it for more conventional dress (by his own admission, this was a good move). He was a mainly self-taught composer who worked with home made instruments and produced eccentric jazz and classical based pieces as well as vocal rounds. Part of the charm of his work is the brevity of much of it.

He was born, Louis Hardin, in Marysville, Kansas on May 26, 1916 but his family moved to Wyoming. He was interested in drums and drum rhythms from an early age. He played drums in Hurley High School in 1929 and in 1949, he played tomtom and flute at a Sun Dance held by the Blackfoot in Idaho. By then he was already blind as he lost his sight in his early teens when a dynamite cap exploded. He studied music and finished high school at the Iowa School for the Blind, and in 1933 studied braille at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis. He composed all his pieces in braille.

In 1942 Hardin got a scholarship to study in Memphis but he mostly taught himself ear training and other musical skills and theory from books in braille. In 1943, he came to New York and met Artur Rodzinski, Leonard Bernstein, and Toscanini. Supposedly he bowed to kiss Toscanini's hand but Toscanini pulled it away saying,' I am not a beautiful woman '. Hardin also began to meet jazz performers such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman. This gave his work a jazz feel which together with a certain beat quality in the form of humorous philosophical statements and the use of background sounds gives makes him a true eccentric.
Hardin began to call himself Moondog from 1947 in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of".

Despite his status as street musician he intermittently recorded for the CBS, Prestige, Epic, Angel and Mars labels. One of his songs, "All Is Loneliness," (on "More Moondog" for Prestige and "Moondog 2" on CBS) was recorded by Janis Joplin. He also wrote music for radio and television commercials, and his music was used on the soundtracks for Jack Nicholson's "Drive, He Said," and the Coen Brothers "Big Lebowsky". Moondog also worked on an album of "Mother Goose Songs" with Julie Andrews. He was also feted by jazz musicians - Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, 50's beat poets and 60s flower children. His CBS "Moondog" album came about when James William Guercio - producer of Chicago and director of cult film "Electra Glide in Blue" - heard him and decided to record him. Moondog was also interviewed on many television shows, including both "Today" and "The Tonight Show."

In the fifties Moondog sued the disc jockey Alan Freed, the rock and roll king. Freed used the name Moondog as well as one of his records because it had a howling wolf in it. Then, when he came to New York, he had a program called the Moondog Show. Moondog won the case and Freed stopped using the name. There is a rumour that Stravinski intervened by speaking to the judge.

Moondog disappeared from the streets of New York in 1974 because he had been invited to perform in Germany. After his performances in Hamburg, he began to perform on the streets of Europe where he met Mrs. Sommer who transcribed his music and acted as his publisher and business manager. Her father supported Moondog in his later years. He produced at least five albums in Europe, including a "sound saga" titled "The Creation," and regularly performed his compositions with chamber and symphony orchestras in Paris, Stockholm and cities in Germany. Moondog died of heart failure on Wednesday, September 8, 1999 in a hospital in Munster, Germany. He was 83.

800 kHz

2005-07-01T16:25:00.001-04:00

Why I hope some people are reading this blog … and why I hope some people aren’t

It’s true. Writers don’t write just for themselves. They write to be read by others; even if it is one other person. This blog is a way of sharing some of my off-center interests with you … yes you! You in specific! If you’re reading this blog, then my hope is you have at least some interest in one of the following topics: indie music, free radio, pirate radio, community media, freedom and democracy, the earth we live upon, the moon and stars, art, cool ideas, and making the world a better place (however you define that) ...

However, if you’re not reading this blog, I’m even more pleased. The fact that you’re not connected to the internet is awesome. Yes, technology is wonderful in appropriate doses and usages. Yet neither technology nor information are going to save the human race. Only we can do that, by the grace of the gods and goddesses. It comforts me to no end to know that somewhere someone is listening to old 78’s on a record player … or tuned into a shortwave radio … or writing / sketching in a leather bound paper journal … or telling a story to children … or pulling weeds in the garden … or writing a real letter with textured paper and pen ... or publishing a handmade zine or chapbook … I don’t want the world to be totally technologized, owned by corporations, branded, etc. When we teach our children and grandchildren about the world, it should be about human experiences, ones we can touch and taste and smell, not about a world full of laptops and cell phones and tivo. So thank you, thank you for not reading this blog.

An introduction to Longwave frequencies

2005-06-25T19:01:00.000-04:00

"Longwave" refers to all frequencies below the lower end of the AM broadcasting band at 540 kHz. The lower limit of what frequencies constitute "radio" is not precisely defined, but 5 kHz is a widely accepted starting point for the radio spectrum.

For many years, radio hobbyists ignored longwave because most commonly available communications receivers only tuned down to 540 kHz. However, most new receivers today tune down to at least 150 kHz and longwave DXing is enjoy new popularity.

One big problem when tuning longwave is electrical noise from power lines, electrical devices, motors, etc. Longwave is far more susceptible to such noise than higher frequencies, and you might hear only a loud "buzz" when you tune across longwave from your location. Also, static crashes from thunderstorms can be severe, especially in summer. To combat noise, many longwave DXers use an indoor "loop" antenna that allows rejection of nearby electrical noise sources. Other longwave DXers use special phasing units to reduce noise levels.

Reception distance on longwave is similar to that on the AM broadcast band, as are reception patterns. Greater range is possible when the signal is reaching you over a water path, as is often the case in coastal regions. At night, reception of stations from hundreds or even thousands of miles away is possible. Night reception on longwave is better in winter than in summer, and the equinoxes often give the best propagation.

Unlike the shortwave frequencies above 1700 kHz, the longwave spectrum is allocated on a more "ad hoc" basis, with different users and services frequently sharing the same frequency range. Here is a general description of the world below 540 kHz:

Below 155 kHz: Signals below 155 kHz don't propagate very well via the ionosphere; the absorption is too great even at night during winter. These signals can travel for thousands of miles via ground wave, but high transmitter powers are required. Signals at very low frequencies, about 50 kHz and lower, can penetrate sea water very well. As a result, these frequencies are used by military forces of the major powers, especially for communication with submarines. The U.S. Navy's "Omega" navigation system is found on 10.2, 12, and 13.6 kHz. The Russian navy operates a similar system on 15.62 kHz. The U.S. Air Force has a FSK-based communications system on 29.5 and 37.2 kHz. This system was established to provide a backup in case nuclear explosions rendered the ionosphere useless for propagation. Miscellaneous FSK-based stations are found here for direct communications with submarines and naval forces.

150 to 175 kHz: In the United States, this range is used by the U.S. Air Force's ground wave emergency network (GWEN), a packet-based network to provide communications during a nuclear war. Transmitters are kept continuously operational here on a "standby" basis, and it's easy to hear their loud, "raspy" signal bursts.

155 to 281 kHz: This is another AM broadcasting band in Europe and parts of Asia. In Europe, there are numerous high powered (1,000,000 watts or more) stations here. These stations are capable of covering an entire European nation like France or Germany with reliable signals around the clock. Although ionospheric propagation is not good at these frequencies, the high powers used means that many of these broadcasters can be heard along the Atlantic seaboard during the fall and winter. Best reception is usually from local sunset to about 0600 UTC. A few longwave stations in Asiatic Russia can be heard on the Pacific Coast beginning an hour or so before local sunrise.

160 to 190 kHz: In the United States, this range is open to unlicensed experimental transmissions. Transmitter power is restricted to one watt, and the maximum antenna length (including feedline) can be no more than 50 feet. Any mode can be used. Some of these "lowfer" (as they are known) unlicensed stations have been heard several hundreds of miles away under favorable conditions.

200 to 430 kHz: This range is used mainly by navigation beacons, which continuously repeat their call signs in Morse code. Call signs do not follow the international allocations given elsewhere on this site. Instead, the call signs usually give an idea of the location of the beacon. For example, beacon "FT" on 365 kHz is located at Fort Worth, Texas.

430 to 500 kHz: This range is used for two-way Morse code communications between ships at sea and shore stations. Shore stations use three-letter callsigns, while ship station callsigns consist of four letters. All callsigns are from international allocations. The number of stations you can hear in this range is rapidly declining due to a shift in maritime communications to satellites and shortwave frequencies. After February, 1999, radio operators skilled in Morse code will no longer be required on ships sailing in international waters, and the number of stations you can hear in this range should drop precipitously after that date.

500 kHz: This is an international ship calling and distress frequency for maritime communications in Morse code. It is very lightly used, and after February, 1999, ship stations and shore stations will no longer be required to monitor this frequency for calls.

500 to 540 kHz: This segment is populated by miscellaneous beacons and stations. Perhaps the most interesting frequency here is 518 kHz, used for transmission of maritime safety and navigation information via FSK. This system is known as NAVTEX, and includes weather bulletins as well as notices of missing and overdue vessels. 530 kHz is used in the United States and Canada for low powered road and traffic information broadcasts.

750 kHz

2005-06-21T20:58:00.000-04:00

750 kHz- an introduction to the Seldom Heard Radio blog

Every venture starts at a point of origin, and my venture into the world of blogging starts here. Why a blog? I much prefer the written page and textured paper to the ephemeral world of internet technology. I’ve decided that Seldom Heard Radio needs a presence in the electronic community so I can share thoughts, resources, and creative work & ideas with others. This blog will focus on non-commercial radio, independent music (including some of my personal favorite, the realm of what is sometimes called "psychedelic folk") and occasional news and rantings regarding my show called "Seldom Heard Radio" which is heard on WSCS 90.9 (www.colby-sawyer.edu/wscs in New London NH and WNEC 91.7 in Henniker NH (www.nec.edu)

In New Hampshire there are very few alternatives to commercial radio. There is New Hampshire Public Radio http:/nhpr.org which is about as bland as public radio gets - there is only one music show and it's a boring traditional folk music show on Sunday nights. The rest is talk talk talk ... and very little listening to the audience. Only an hour and a half per day is devoted to topics of New Hampshire interest. "Public Radio" should rightly be called "partially public-funded radio" ... or "partly corporate sponsored radio" ... meeting local public need has little to do with it. I would rather listen to "public access" radio broadcasting if it existed --- frequencies where many diverse voices could be heard. I'll be the first to admit I know very little about podcasting, which seems in spirit similar to public access, though it is "narrowcasting" rather than "broadcasting". To listen to podcasts one must own the right equipment, a computer, etc. To listen to a radio broadcast, all one needs is a radio with an antenna and a power source (or not - some radios are solar or wind-up).Maybe narrowcasting is the future --- ever smaller audiences as we all become more active in creating our own media. The state of media is in flux right now, it is the most exciting time in radio history since Marconi received the letter 'S' in Morse code across the Atlantic. The possibilities for creating diversity are opening all around us even as commercial radio becomes more and more homogenized, monosyllabic and bland. So this is my first attempt at a web presence for Seldom Heard Radio. Please stay tuned.