Before we get to this week’s music I wanted to let you know that you can also hear The Weekly Mix every Sunday on KAOS Radio Austin at 6PM Central. KAOS Radio Austin used to be a pirate radio station but they’ve gone legit and now broadcast over the net instead of the airwaves, delivering the weirdness you’d expect from a city like Austin. I chatted with KAOS Radio Austin’s founding member and programmer, El Demento, last year for Pop Culture Intelligentsia, so it’s my great pleasure to be part of their radio station. It’s also my pleasure to have El Demento on today’s show and I hope to make it a tradition to talk with programmers from every radio station that carries The Weekly Mix.
On today’s show we’re going to listen to a mix I put together with my friends two years ago. That’s a long time, I know, but there’s a reason for that and to explain myself I have to tell you a little bit about myself.
First off, I’ve been deejaying and producing shows for more than half my life. I’ve been on the air for hundreds of hours and I’ve spent hundreds of more hours producing shows. People often ask me where I find the time to work on so many shows. The answer was simple: I wasn’t married and I didn’t have kids.
When I began working on today’s show that was still true. But two years ago I met the love of my life. And the love of my life also has three kids. I was having too much fun and was too busy to spend time on anything that didn’t revolve around them. But the itch to deejay never goes away and now that things have settled down a bit in my life it’s time to get back into it. Kicking off 2017 seems the best way to do it.
So let me tell you about today’s show.
I got my start at WMFO, a college/community radio station in Boston. WMFO broadcasts under a freeform format so it wouldn’t sound incongrous to hear disco, jazz, opera and hip hop on one of my shows.
From time to time I would throw a deejay party at the station. They were a lot of fun and very intense because it was a test of our abilities as a deejay. While one deejay was spinning a song you had the length of that track to choose the next song and cue it up on the turntable or CD player. And not just any song, it had to be a song that would segue nicely out the track that was being played at the moment. The results were unpredictable but those shows always sounded fantastic, and that’s what I’m hoping to capture on today’s show.
I’ve invited my friends to particpate on today’s mix by having them select a song to play based solely on the track that preceeded their song. They had no idea of what was played any further than that. They could stay within the same genre or veer off into an entirely different direction as long as their selection made sense, if only just to them. I also asked each of my friends to record an introduction for the songs they chose.
On today’s show you’ll hear “Acid” by Stu Mitchell, which was chosen by Steve Howard, who I’ve know almost as long as I’ve been deejaying. We met at WMFO and Steve currently spins at Asheville FM.
We’ll also hear “Kolyskova” by DakhaBrakha. “Kolyskova” was selected by Darek Mazzone, who is also a WMFO alumn and currently hosts the wildly popular Wo’ Pop show on KEXP in Seattle.
From Kidkanevil we’ll hear the track “Butterfly / Satellite,” which was selected by Macedonia, who hosts the Both Sides of the Surface podcast. You can also find him spinning on Bondfire Radio out of New York City. In fact, as I write this I’m listening to his 50th broadcast on Bondfire!
Alan Ranta chose Tipper’s “Homage Sliders” for today’s show. Alan writes for the likes of Exclaim!, CBC Music and PopMatters so it was a no-brainer to include him on today’s show.
Ned Raggett selected Grouper’s “Living Room.” I connected with Ned through Steve Howard. Ned writes for Pitchfork, The Quietus, and many other fine publications. Go Google him!
Blank Realm’s “Cleaning Up My Mess” was chosen by Sean Hocking, who runs Metal Postcard Records. I met Sean when I featured his label on my show, solipsistic NATION, and I’ve been meaning to get him involved in one of my hairbrained schemes ever since, so I’m happy he joins us on today’s mix.
Anji Bee picked the Stwo Remix of JMSN’s “The One.” Anji Bee has been producing podcasts for just as long as I have and I urge you to listen to her show, The Chillcast.
Mikel OD is another podcaster who I’ve known for ages and he selected “Pressure” by My Brightest Diamond. I was a big fan of Mikel’s Most People are DJs podcast but these days he’s up to no good with his latest project, Digital Racket.
Another guest I had on solipsistic NATION was Strictly Kev (AKA DJ Food). I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time and I was thrilled when he added Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles’ “The Cavern” to today’s mix.
Deejay Om picked “And I Love You” by The Darling Dears for his contribution to the Friends mix. I met Deejay Om through solipsistic NATION and had the pleasure of meeting him in person a few years agon in San Francisco. He’s a classy guy with exquisite taste in music.
My buddy Craig Ruiz chose Dr. John’s “Getaway.” Craig and I bonded over our love for Amon Tobin’s music and we’ve been friends ever since.
Mahiane d’Ultimate is yet another person I met through solipsistic NATION when I featured her label, Ultimae Records, on my show. Mahiane is one of the sweetest people I know so I was honored when she graced today’s mix with Apparat’s “Arcadia.”
Sativa Mariposa is the love of my life so she had to be on today’s show. Her taste in music is fantastic and it’s one of the very many things I love about her. And I also love that she selected James Browns’ “Please, Please, Please” for the mix your about to hear.
We’re going to wrap up today’s show with Jhené Aiko’s “Eternal Sunshine.”
See you next week when I launch my Weekly Mix series.
I’m keeping today’s show mellow. I’ve got a cold and I wanted to convey to you sonically what I’m feeling. I’m also not going to talk too much on today’s show because my throat is still alittle sore and I never know when I might cough and you don’t want to hear that.
I’ve been living in San Diego for the last five years and to be honest, it’s always been summer to me. Natives and long time residents of San Diego can tell the differences between seasons but I’m only vaguely aware of them. As a consequence, all the months and years I’ve live in San Diego have blurred together. There’s only an endless “now.”
While today’s show is a celebration of the passing of the summer it’s more of a salute to my summers in Boston, where the days are hot, humid and lazy and the nights are sultry. I wouldn’t trade the weather in San Diego for anything but I do on occasion miss those New England days where the heat would bake into your bones.
Another thing I do miss about living in Boston are my seasonal libations. In the fall and winter my drinks were whiskey and scotch and in the spring and summer my drinks were gin & tonic and rum & coke. As I said, it always feels like it is summer in San Diego so I have to go out of my way to drink my whiskey or scotch.
That said, I raise a gin & tonic in honor of the summer of ’06!
I had always intended to bring solipsistic NATION out of retirement but there was always some sort of technical problem that prevented me from relaunching the podcast.
Originally I was going to use Macromedia‘s SoundEdit which came bundled with Director. Unfortunately, when I mixed down a set the track would be in mono and distorted. I tried doing the show using DJ-1800 and recording the set with WireTap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro but there was a touch of distortion in the recording I could never eliminate.
Last month the connection to the hard drive in my ancient G4 tower died. I didn’t have the cash to buy a new tower so I purchased a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was much more powerful than my G4 and as an added bonus, it came pre-installed with GarageBand. Suddenly all my problems were resolved in one fell swoop.
There are some deejays who like to do everything live without a net and on the fly. I was never one of those deejays. Oh, I’m fine at improvising live sets but my preference has always been to map out my shows in advance, meticulously plotting the segues and overall flow of a mix. Given my anal retentiveness for planning shows GarageBand is perfect with how I like to work.
I hope you enjoy today’s first show in the relaunching of solipsistic NATION!
