Monday, August 31, 2026
Radio Free California Episode 2635
Monday, August 24, 2026
Radio Free California Episode 2634
Monday, August 17, 2026
Mixing the groove, Radio Free California Episode 2633, notes about this week's selections
New music this week from Asia, my neighbor The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Echo & The Bunnymen, Jon Batiste, Pete Yorn, The Retrograde, Mastadon, The Womack Sisters, Hovvdy and much more. Enjoy!
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Let me start off this week by simply saying that Jon Batiste
is a national treasure. He dropped three albums this past week; one a
re-interpretation of classical standards as seen through the eyes of New
Orleans, and two separate albums in the stylings of Thelonius Monk. I close out
this playlist with one of those tracks, and I recommend picking up all three.
Can I mention what a revelation the new Pete Yorn album,
"All The Beauty", is? I've never really been all that big a fan, but
this new album is one of those that you listen and think, "that was pretty
good" but you listen again and each song gets better and better. I had a
lot of new music this week and decided that no artist would get more than 2
songs and I had a hard time picking only two. Highly recommended.
Why oh why didn't I discover The Retrograde sooner? Another
artist with 2 selections this week from their EP "Live Forever".
Classic rock and roll riffs, great playing, fun lyrics. You really can't miss.
And now for a mea culpa. My third artist with 2 songs
selected is not a new release. I rarely ever do this because I want these
playlists to focus on new music, but Tate McRae's EP "The One Day LP"
came out in 2021. In fact, I had never heard of her before this past week. How
the hell does someone who does what I do miss an artist with 43 MILLION
listeners every month? Pretty easily it would appear. I find most of her work
to be fairly ordinary but this EP, which was my introduction to her work, I
thought was special and I had picked out material to add before I realized that
this album is 5 years old. So I'm pulling out the rare "my station my
rules" card here. The radio station has over 2,100 songs in rotation right
now, I can be allowed a couple like this. Oh, and before I forget, here is the
link to the radio station:
The "Dark Side" mix of the latest by Peter Gabriel
is now out and as per usual it's the version I like better. Sometimes it seems
unfair that so much talent can belong to one man.
I did not have a new release by Echo & The Bunnymen on
my expectations and am glad to see they still sound like themselves after all
these years. If the rest of the album is like the first single, we're in for a
good time. Similarly, I did not have an appearance from New Radicals on my
bingo card either.
And finally, I must give a shout out to The Womack Sisters
and their self-titled debut album. Being the nieces of Bobby Womack brings a
certain expectation and not only do they deliver, they exceed in a form of soul
music you don't hear very much these days. If you want a trip down memory lane
that's also completely new this is where you want to go.
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I have a LOT of musical coals on the fire these days. I've
spent a lot of the past year working on instrumental music, and I've been
itching to get back to vocal work and rock and roll, which I plan to have as my
focus for 2027. For music I've already released this year I have music from
three separate releases up for awards and am being inducted into the Indie
Music Hall of Fame.
But right now?
A remake of an old English smash hit that I really hope the
original writer of (who is still working) won't get too mad at me for taking a
small liberty with his lyrics.
An honest to dog mid-80's style funk tune. Seriously,
sometimes I think I'm ripping off Prince, while sometimes I feel like I'm
parodying him. And there's a spot in the song where it takes great restraint to
not add the synth line from Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance".
Remastering and enhancing music I haven't listened to since
the record label I was signed to decided to shelve my major label release. Some
of it really out there and some of it incredibly saccharine.
As part of that I've been slowly getting the old tapes that
are finally back in my possession converted to digital. And I've discovered
that the studio I used back in the day would screw around with tape speeds. Not
during a song, but between songs. Not hard to fix, but I was initially shocked
at how much higher my voice was 40 years ago.
And Kevin and Ed, if you're reading this, one of those tapes
has 3 songs by a band called ASK. Original Demos, fully realized. I think we're
going to need to talk.
As a musician, I have always been a creature of the studio.
This puts me in the minority, believe it or don't. Most musicians thrive in a
live setting. Getting the audience feedback. It can be like a feedback loop on
a good night, and I admit the thrill of it is hard to match. I have been that
musician, but never fully committed to it.
It's the studio where my real creativity comes out. I'm not
afraid to edit performances together, play with parameters, try new ideas, mix
and edit and mix and edit again and again until I get what I am looking for.
For example, 4 years ago I was invited to an event for a
friend and found myself sitting alone at a piano for over an hour. I just
improvised. No audience for almost the whole time. Just me and my phone, which
I used to record what I was playing. The original thought was that I'd use what
I recorded to refine into full songs later, but it turned out that the
recording was a fantastic quality, which I didn't anticipate. Thank you Dolby
Labs for the app.
So instead I spent a month refining the recordings and
turning the improvisations into songs. One of those songs, a track called
"Jack" wound up winning a couple of awards. The performance was
important, of course, and I'm pretty good at improvising at a piano, but it's
the hours spent at an audio console in my home that turned it into what it is.
Here is one of the two videos for that track, which is culled together from 3 separate
moments of improvisation:
In some spots you can hear me breathe, hear me manipulating
the pedals. At one point you can hear workmen trying to set up for an event.
Another example: until 2025 all 5 members of Chris Reed and the Anime Raiders had never been in the same room at the same time. We shoot ideas off of each other all the time but at the end of the day it's me who puts all of our performances together. Our album "Frankfurt am Main" is many many hours of recording, much of it improvised or with the most bare of charts, distilled down into only a few songs. That was my work, refining, organizing, editing down to the picosecond, adding ideas with new tracks recorded in my home studio and so on.
All of those tracks at the top of this post are at points where I need to hunker down and work. For example, that remake has everything save the vocals recorded, and I really need to edit the bass parts to deal with that section where wrong notes were played and fix the timing of one of the keyboard parts before I put down vocals. The funk tune only needs vocals but I need to figure out how to make the top of my singing register work with that style of music. My old tunes are desperately screaming out for guitar parts (vocals on those are done).
So that's just me at my desk, bouncing tracks between two screens, listening and relistening and trying different effects and ideas, over and over and over with a roll of Sweet-Tarts at my beck and call. The Sweet-Tarts are key. There has been many a time where I start working on something and suddenly hours have passed. If you've ever been "in the zone" for anything at all in your life you'll know exactly what I mean. I've had moments since relocating to San Francisco where I will look up to take a break and realize that the reason my hands are shaking is because it's cold in here and I never turned on the heater.
Working as I do has allowed me to discover things like substituting a shaker for the hi hat. The sound of backing vocals singing the same line as the lead but so buried in the mix it only sounds like an enhancement of the main vocal line. The power of also whispering the lyrics keep in the mix. How to space out guitars in the mix. When to compress and when not to. When to throw away something you can't get to work and try something else. Creating a "room" that your mix exists in. Finding the beauty in imperfection.
This is my sweet spot. The part of the music business I call home. I love it. I probably should have become a producer. In all fairness, I have produced a few artists over the years.
And this is where I'm going to be for the next two months or so. It probably won't look any different to all of you who only know me on the Internet but to my friends and family I will be more absent than usual. They know what it means when I stock up on Sweet-Tarts. I'm hoping to get that remake out by early October.
Watch this space.
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If you were expecting swearing and political discourse,
remember this simple rule: If they work for this administration, they are
fucking criminals and belong in prison. This is the single most corrupt
administration in the history of our nation.
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And because I love you, Van Halen, circa 1981, like you've never seen them:
Friday, August 14, 2026
Well, I guess I'm going then.
I was going to pass on going to the Indie Music Awards this year, even though I'm up for a couple. I've won before and while that's fantastic making the trip to Los Angeles to attend in person can be a chore.
And then....
I guess I'm going. As I said to my wife, "Holy Shit, one of those is me!"
They did a decent write-up on me too on the website:
Monday, August 10, 2026
Radio Free California Episode 2632, some notes about the music selected, and random thoughts and swears over the news stories of the day
Monday, August 3, 2026
Radio Free California Episode 2631, plus a few thoughts
Saturday, August 1, 2026
I am leaving Facebook and all associated platforms
I just left the following post on all of my Facebook pages. I'm posting now instead of my usual Monday post because I want this to be seperate from my usual playlist posts.
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Friends, it is with a less-than-heavy heart that I inform
everyone that I am leaving Facebook. Myself, my band, my radio station. All are
leaving. Just as when the world’s most stoned multi-billionaire decided to lead
what was once twitter into Nazi territory, I have decided my time here is done,
for the same reason. I know I walked away once before and eventually came back
and I’ll admit it’s possible that will happen again, but not while it is under
its current management. Blending AI and Newsmax to create the newsfeeds you
will see on your page is the final straw for me. I suppose you can’t expect
better from a site originally started up by a guy who wanted to stalk his ex.
If I come back without Meta making some changes feel free to
make fun of me. I will deserve it.
I’m not overreacting, although some will certainly think I
am. You are of course welcome to your thoughts. I’d bet however that your kids
don’t get death threats for simply existing. Or that the news feeds that come
to you is written by people diametrically opposed to everything you stand for
and believe.
This will be my final post on the site. It takes 30 days for
Facebook to take someone’s page down, because they want you coming back. Welp,
I know a trick around that and am going to use it. You will still be able to
see my past posts until August 31, 2026 but there will be nothing after today.
I will pin this post so that you see it first, but some of you will never see
it.
That’s Facebook for you. Algorithms can be programmed with
bias. It's not even all that hard.
Those of you who know me in real life already know how to
find me. And if you don’t remember the e-mail address I’ve had for over 3 decades,
contact one of my high-school friends I’m still in touch with. It won’t be that
hard, there are only two.
Family knows how to reach me as well, even though so few of
us are left on the West Coast or even the continent.
Facebook’s one saving grace for me has always been that this
is where most of my college friends talk to one another. I imagine that will
decrease going forward for me and I’m saddened by that. I won’t sugarcoat it –
I will miss that. I wish nothing but love and happiness for all of you.
I am not done with social media, not by a long shot. I’m on
Bluesky, tumblr, and counter social (which is where I spend most of my private
social media time). I love counter social because there are no ads, no spurious
notifications, and people genuinely talk to one another. I have worries about
Bluesky, but I did about twitter pre-Musk as well and it’s where most of my
twitter and musician friends wound up. Tumblr isn’t much for interacting but
I’ve found great artists there. I have the same handle at all three sites: Animeraider.
I’m on LinkedIn under my real name, but doing social media
there just feels weird.
I’m not hiding. If you want to find me, I’ve told you how.
I have really big news I’ll be posting in September, after
I’m gone from Facebook, so if you want to know what’s going on in my life I do
recommend my various social media spots.
I also have my blog: https://whatthefrackiswrongwithyou.blogspot.com/
I will of course still be making music – a lot of it – and
it can all be found at most of the usual places for streaming, as well as my Bandcamp
page: https://animeraider.bandcamp.com/
Feel free to follow any of them. I have a Soundcloud page but it needs an
overhaul that I will get to in short order. I'll post about it on my blog when the time is right.
I will still be posting about my work and giving advance
notices of releases in the places where I do social media and my blog, all
noted above. I expect that not having Facebook in my arsenal of advertising
will have the exact same effect that it has now. Not a damned thing.
I may even revive my long-dead Patreon page. Their leader is
a fellow musician and lives in the same city I do.
I create Spotify Playlists every week of only new music.
I’ve made a lot of them, and no one has ever paid for a spot. I discover them
and not the other way around. I comingle artists with 5 followers with those
who have 5,000,000. They’re all here: https://open.spotify.com/user/6tn61v5rzwq9nq9r0sj6yqcrt?si=2d34bcd3c29141f3
I have an internet radio station called Radio Free
California, which plays music from the past year found on these playlists. I
play the most recent playlist in order on Wednesdays but otherwise it’s all
random EXCEPT for 10pm PST, when I play 10 at 10 – I pick a year at random and
play 10 songs from that year. There is an app for it available at the google
play store (sorry, no apple) or you can just go here: https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia
No DJ’s, no Commercials. Just music I like, in many genres.
I have this blog. I mention it again because I embed the
playlists for the week there, talk about some of the music I’ve selected, give
opinions about the news of the day, unload a number of swear words, and
sometimes give you something extra too. https://whatthefrackiswrongwithyou.blogspot.com/.
You’re more than welcome to yell at me over there.
That’s about it really. I have now lived in San Francisco
for longer than I have all other places in my life combined. I enjoy connecting
with people who have been important in my life – my two remaining high school
friends, my college friends, my musician friends, and everyone else spread out
from here to Europe to Asia and Australia. Even if we’re not hanging out in the
same places anymore all of you are important to me. Never forget that. I won’t.
For now though, I think I’d like to interact with people the
old-fashioned way; in person.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
-Chris
And because I love you, here is the video I had commissioned after my fruitful trip to Frankfurt am Main last year.