Blog Archives
NightFlyRadio – No Static At All
Time to put the needle on the record. No sucker Djs, just two turntables and a microphone on the avenue by Radio City with a transistor.
Wdydfae commented on the last post about his memories of radio –
My inchoate fragments of radio memories don’t coalesce into a particular story. Radio wasn’t a big part of my childhood, as far as I can remember, unless I was riding in someone’s car and it happened to be playing.
…Then it moves into adulthood, and radio was in another country and language. Basically, lousy radio selection–just not a radio culture. Then I realized the radio riches I had left behind, with at least a channel for just about any genre you could want. So, belatedly I appreciated that the radio world of the States is vibrant–lot of stuff out there, and a whole way of talking, presenting yourself, presenting sound, pacing things.
Read the full comment here.
Kicking off with Steely Dan’s classic”FM” in spectacular style…. From the YouTube channel of the Empire State Building, followed by a big block of tunes to crank up to 11 –
“On October 29, 2015, the 50th anniversary of the installation of a Master FM Antenna on the top of the Empire State Building, the global landmark synchronized its world-famous tower lights to Steely Dan’s 1978 smash ‘FM (No Static At All).'”
Bonus points if you saw a young Geordi La Forge or maybe Tom & Jerry in there.
Hope you enjoyed the music.
NightFlyRadio
An independent station,
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation…
– Donald Fagen, The Nightfly
Music for your late night from the radio booth.
“The Nightfly” by Donald Fagen was far from the first (or the last) song about radio and disc jockeys, but more than any other song it captured the feel of being a late night DJ spinning jazzy tunes while waiting for callers to ring in with political commentary and crackpot theories, right down to the coffee-and-cigarette fueled solitude and even the advertising jingles.
But as noted above, Fagen was far from the only one to reminisce nostalgic (or not to nostalgic) about such things….
What do you remember about radio when growing up? Discovering new bands and taping favorites with a cheap Maxell or TDK tape? Hearing talk radio and all the politics conspiracy theories? Just listening to a baseball game while grilling out? Leave a comment and tell your story.
More tomorrow.
Rocktober Saturday Night Studio – 10th Floor Cibo Matto
Extra sugar, extra salt, extra oil and MSG with a few bad words if you’re delicate like that.
Shut up and eat!
Sixteen years ago, one day*
I was walking down the street
I was looking for music
You know what I mean?
And I picked up this CD
I kinda want to know her more
Are you made or broken by the birthday cake?
2 for 1, but 3 For 2!
She talks like American, she walks like Egyptian
*Ok, it might have been 15 years ago. Somewhere around there I picked up Viva! La Woman at a used CD place.
Rocktober Saturday Night Studio – Liphlich Great Nonsense Skam
By request, here’s some Liphlich for Wdydfae, whose site you really should check out. I have no idea what the hell the deal is with this band, they’re almost like a collision of Glam Rock and Lounge Style with some Scandinavian metal thrown in over a disco beat. Or something.
Skam Life –
Move every Zig for Great Nonsense –
Whatever happened to that Manic Pixie that you used to know?
Some live Liphlich, not the greatest video quality but good enough –
Thanks to Wdydfae for making this an easy one.
Rocktober – Saturday Night Shirley
Rocktober begins again, bringing the rain today after a stretch of nice weather, just in time for a Saturday Night Special Studio with Shirley Manson and Garbage –
The band is probably best known for two songs – the above and the radio mainstay “Stupid Girl” –
Shirley doesn’t hesitate to let people know where they stand, does she?
Have an entire concert from 20 years ago, when they were just starting out.
Rocktober Saturday Night Studio – Halloween
Some music to scare the trick-or-treaters with, along with a trick or two in the mix.
Happy Halloween!
Rocktober Final Friday
Friday Night, 12:30 AM EST
The final Friday Night Videos of 2015, with a triple threat of evil –
Jon Spencer has teeth that are long and a pentagram on his palm –
Concrete Blonde has the ways and means to where the vampires live –
Alice In Chains, born into the grave –
Rocktober – Satan’s Barbershop
Heads are hanging from the garbageman trees as Beck spends Devil’s Night trying to keep his –
Rocktober – The Dark And Stormy Night Rises
“Everything comes back down to Batman, in the end.” – Donal Graeme
It’s dark and will likely be raining tonight, apropos for the night before Halloween.
A sequel was attempted…
..but ultimately not produced.
The phrase “It was a dark and stormy night” comes from the 1830 novel Paul Clifford, written by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, and was picked up years later by Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, who gave the line to aspiring author Snoopy as part of that decorated WWI Flying Ace’s ongoing efforts to be published.
The novel began thusly –
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents – except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Sounds like the setting for Gotham. Or a metal video game.
Schulz had Snoopy write out his novel, starting with the famous line and building from there, and can be read it its (short) entirety here.
In 1981, writer Len Wein and artist Walt Simonson did something fun for the 500th issue of Detective Comics, where Batman originated, by doing a remix of sorts of Snoopy’s novel, presented in its (also short) entirety above.
Somewhere along the line, Charles Schulz did a drawing for DC Comics artist Carmine Infantino, who drew Batman in the 60s –
Rocktober – Fatitude
I can make no sense of this –
The word is out, better treat me right!
Now I get it … he’s dressed up for Halloween as Weird Al. Ding dong, yo.
There’s more needing feminism here, but my favorite is this one –
“I need feminism because I need contradiction”
I can’t tell if that’s for real or a truth bomb costumed as Progressivist BuzzwordThink. Or maybe just a troll.
H/T to Goodbye America
nightskyradio 