Friday, June 30th, 2006 ... 6:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Another fill-in during interim, this time for Natalie, who's up and graduated. Filled the first half with long-form pieces, allowing me to prepare pop and rock sets for the second half. I'd hoped to get into country/folk as well, just because there are lots of CDs in rotation along those lines that haven't gotten played much (or played at all). The contrarian in me loves to look up the forgotten CDs in rotation and give them some love.

I ended up doing three shifts today: This one, my regular shift, and the Prog Mountain special after that. (Although, to be honest, I don't do much for the Prog Mountain shows -- Ragnar and Zuss bring in all the music we need.) Makes for a tiring day, but we do need bodies to fill the airwaves during these weeks between quarters.

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)

* Micro Journey -- [untitled track 2, excerpt] -- Micro Journey Vol. 2 (self-released, 2006)

Various field recordings -- actually taped conversations -- plus snippets of guitar rehearsals, all strung together in a found-sound manner (my guess is the tape recorder was turned on and off sporadically over the course of a few days or weeks). Interesting experiment; I once did something similar recording the various sounds of a clock radio, from stations to static to the alarm, in one continuous five-minute stretch. The results, both for me and this project, come out sounding strangely artsy ... I know that with my recording, lame as it was, I came out feeling like I'd actually learned something.

With Jayaraman's son and daughter (Lalgudy G.J.R. Krishnan and Lalgudi J. Vijayalakshmi, not necessarily in that order) also on violins, accompanied by traditional Indian instruments, the mridangam and kanjira. The result is some nice Indian music, on violins of course, with a swaying, bright feel. Unsure if stores would file this under "L" or "J" ... Indian names are rather complex; it's more than just the "surname-goes-first" rule that Pacific Asian cultures use. Then again, I'm probably just thinking about this too hard.

Previously noted here. This particular piece is a nice 33-minute journey, all improvised but including some relaxed rhythmic pulsing here and there for a bit of a conventional sound, as well as some fiery moments. Featuring Carrier on sax, Mat Maneri on viola, and Uwe Neumann on sitar, along with Michel Lambert (drums) and Pierre Cote (bass).

* Christian McBride -- [About 1/2 hour of Disk 2, a continuous jam] -- Live at Tonic (Ropeadope, 2006)

Previously noted here. I just dug into the second of the "extended jams," as I called them, on Disk 2. Featuring Charlie Hunter (guitar), Jenny Scheinmann (violin), and Geoffrey Keezer (organ) in a long funky strut that's split into multiple tracks on the CD.

This took me up to the 7:30 a.m. mark, at which point we're required to read the KZSU Concert Calendar listing (available at kzsu.org under "Resources"). Used that as a breaking point, then dove into the pop stuff.

Guitar pop, fast and danceable but kind of moody ... a British '80s influence, I guess.

* Na -- "B" -- Na Is Nice (Pax, 2006)

Experimental pop, kind of. From Japanese folks living in Seattle. This one's a gentle, childlike guitar-and-piano figure overlaid with some fun, wacky percussion. Elsewhere you get dissonant guitar and even the all-out screaming that you'd kind of expect when a review mentions "experimental" and "Japanese."

* Brian Kenny Fresno -- "Generator" -- Live on KZSU (Outer A, 2006)

Fun guy. Hailing from Fresno (he flips an applause switch every time he mentions the city), he does solo shows with overdubbed loops of his own vocals (including cool harmonies) and his Warr guitar. Has the feel of novelty folk kinds of music: great sense of humor, friendly stage presence, etc. This song is about the disaster of going to a concert where they lost power and couldn't play ... another one on the CD is about how he got dumped by Fresno's arts community and rejected by Burning Man for "harshing people's mellow."

Band from France (to avoid confusion with any other "Visitors"). It's got a very prog sound, bouncy and quirky, in alternating 6/8 and 7/8 phrases. This kind of broke the "cool guitar rock" mode of the show, but it was a nice way to promote the Horror of Prog Mountain show that I'd be doing later in the evening.

Overexposed British pop band. I stuck this into my screening pile for the show just to hear what they sounded like -- I'd seen all the press around this CD but hadn't heard it yet. I have to admit, I liked it a lot. Fast and confident, this track features rapid-fire lyrics and a kind of sneering, smarmy attitude.

A random pull from the library -- gotta include one in every pop/rock show! Wailing, heavy rock with a tiny bit of country twang. I guess you could call them "alt.country," but they seem a lot heavier than what I associate with that label. Maybe I just don't listen to enough alt.country. Anyway, a total downer in an otherwise upbeat, poppy set, but in true DJ-geek form, I couldn't resist the transition it presented. By skipping some of the intro (apologies to the band!), I was able to start this track on a first-strike chord that followed the final, nearly a-capella, line of the Arctic Monkeys track. So, you had: "... doors are secuuuure."/BAM! Anyway, it sounded cool to me. This is what runs through DJs' minds early in the morning.

Even more dreamy than the Abner Trio, above, this was a nicely swingy, lush pop ballad that harks back to '60s kind of Britpop. (And yes, it's "harks back," not "harkens," believe it or not.) Performed by Jarond Gibbs, who is the band, kind of in that Cat Power / Mountain Goats way.

Great, great, noisy avant-rock. You've got Sam Coomes of Quasi doing vocals -- sometimes lyrics, sometimes just sounds or "aaah"s -- along with a crack band of local jazz/improv/experimental guys: Gino Robair (drums), John Shiurba (guitar), Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, synths), and Scott Rosenberg (sax et.al.). (Rosenberg isn't local but used to be, so he counts.) Definitely rock stuff, as opposed to jazz or improv: lots of loud guitars and heavy beats (for the tracks with beats); also lots of sonic explosions and shrieky noise.