New music this week from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Salt Cathedral, Library Card, Maxwell Farrington & Le SuperHomard, the BVs, The Kittens, Seye Adelekan, John Carpenter (!), Shash with Brian Johnson (and an uncredited Stephen Tyler on harmonica), Norah Jones and much more. Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2311. This includes music from legends like Yes, Peter Gabriel, Fishbone and Depeche Mode, plus great bands like Your Heart Bleeds, Theo Katzman, Blondshell, Christine and the Queens, Beach Fossils and much more.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
This week's album show will feature the new album by Meatbodies called "Flora Ocean Tiber Bloom". You can read their bio on Spotify - it reads like it was done by a marketing department. To me they sound like a cross between early Smashing Pumpkins with a touch of Collective Soul and Soul Asylum. It's pretty good stuff and we'll play the whole album this week on the Album Show.
The Album Show will run this Thursday March 14th at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2411
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday March 13th at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .If you want to hear the songs we've added to the station this week you can use the Spotify playlist above or you can listen to this show.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1991 and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out! We also run the show at a "secret" time on Saturdays.
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
No cheap shots today. I just didn't have the time
But because I love you, have a guitar lesson from one of the best rhythm guitarists out there:
Holy crap what a week for new music! We have Sub-Radio, The Selfless Lovers, Royel Otis, Keith Richards, Penny Arcade, MOULE, Snarls, Big Kink Artist Woman, Liam Gallagher & John Squire and much more. Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2310. This includes music from Extreme, The Church, Metallica, Dream Club, The The, Your Favorite band's Favorite Band, Magaziine, The Dandy Warhols, The National, Haken and more.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
Royel Otis is a properly snarky band. Their Spotify bio reads, "In the lyrical justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The Royel, who investigate rhyme, and Otis, who prosecutes the offenders. These are their stories.". They have a new album called Pratts & Pain and it's a solid effort, but I discovered them thanks to their new single "Murder on the Dancefloor", which IS NOT ON THE ALBUM. So I've decided to have a little fun with it. We're going to play the new album, PLUS the single on this week's show.
The Album Show will run this Thursday March 7th at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2410
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday March 6th at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .If you want to hear the songs we've added to the station this week you can use the Spotify playlist above or you can listen to this show.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1988 and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out! We also run the show at a "secret" time on Saturdays.
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
Fantastic week for new music, including Pouty, Hot Water Music, Bat For Lashes, Mick Mars, Linkin Park, The Weeknd (with guests), Modern English, Low Girl, Dehd, GROUPLOVE and much more! Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2309. This includes music from Screaming Females, PONY, Nickel Creek, P!nk, AJ & Aly, Shounen Knife, @, Joe Louis Walker, and so much New music this week from Jethro Tull, Theo Katzman, Beck, Crown Lands, Atarashii Gakko!, James Reid, a great new album from U.S. Girls and another one from Lucero and much much more. Enjoy!
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
This week on The Album Show was again a no-brainer for me. As I started working through Pouty's first full-length album called "Forgot about me". Forgot About Me is Rachel Gagliardi’s (from the punk band "Slutever") full-length debut under the name Pouty. The album was written and recorded throughout 2022 in Los Angeles and Philadelphia with The Superweak's Evan Bernard and Chris Baglivo. Forgot About Me’s nine tracks speak to a series of realizations about desire, self-sabotage, denial, acceptance, and aging, all set atop fuzzy power pop.
The Album Show will run this Thursday February 29that 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2409
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday February 28th at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .If you want to hear the songs we've added to the station this week you can use the Spotify playlist above or you can listen to this show.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1981 and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
Cheap Shots:
This is, by every definition possible, all fucked up.
I kinda doubt that Leonard Cohen would write a song about this.
New music this week from J. Robbins, who dropped the best album so far this year, The Warning, Big Big Train, Grandaddy, Sean Ono Lennon, English Teacher, The Dandy Warhols (with Slash), lovelytheband, some older dudes from Seattle and much more. Enjoy!
Let's see if I can get through this week without getting a ban for language, shall we?
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2308. This includes music from Screaming Females, PONY, Nickel Creek, P!nk, AJ & Aly, Shounen Knife, @, Joe Louis Walker, and so much more, plus even I show up.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
This week on The Album Ahow was a no brainer for me. I have been a fan of J. Robbins going all the way back to when he was the lead guitarist for Jawbox, which is shockingly now 30 years ago. He has a new album out called "Basilisk" and to my mind it's the best album out so far this year. I added 5 tracks from it to the radio station rotation, and feel that everyone should give the album a listen. So we will feature the entire 11 song album this week on the Album Show.
The Album Show will run this Thursday February 22nd at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2407
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday February 21st at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .If you want to hear the songs we've added to the station this week you can use the Spotify playlist above or you can listen to this show.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1996 and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
And because I love you, these two are coming back to the rebooted "Night Court"
Tons of new music for a new month! Music from Shed Seven, Billy Joel, Mary Spender, Avi Kaplan, J Mascis, The Pineapple Thief, yungatita, Library Card, Hoorsees, On The Road and much more. Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2306. This includes tracks from Peter Gabriel, The Winery Dogs, Kat Robichaud, Koshi Inaba, Theo Katzman, a great remake from Powerwolf, and a monster prog rock song from Canada's Crown Lands, and more.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
This week on The Album Ahow we will feature the new album from veteran Britpop band Shed Seven and their new album "A Matter of Time". It's a solid album and frankly among the best work they've done in their 30 year career. From their Spotify page: "this album flies out of the traps - perhaps reflecting its origins during lockdown - and ends in autumnal, reflective mood. Along the way, guests including the Libertines’ Peter Doherty, Rowetta from Happy Mondays and Reverend and the Makers’ Laura McClure have joined in to produce in another set of epic Shed Seven anthems. The album’s power and maturity reflects the decades-long friendship between singer Witter, guitarist Paul Banks, and bassist Tom Gladwin. A Matter Of Time demonstrates that the band are at the very top of their game and the journey is far from nearing its end."
The Album Show will run this Thursday February 8th at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2406
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday February 7th at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .If you want to hear the songs we've added to the station this week you can use the Spotify playlist above or you can listen to this show.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 2012 and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
And because I love you, the new video from J Mascis is a TRIP:
I'm doing two topics this blog. Taylor Swift is not appearing on my next album.
I have been a songwriter for 45 years. I can still remember bits and pieces of my early jazz pieces, but when I was fifteen years of age I actually wrote a song about a girl who had broken up with me. So I did it first a dozen years before Taylor Swift was born. It isn't half bad. It's even on one of my albums. I could have done a better job on the vocals but I was going through what I like to call my "Garage Pop" phase. You can hear it here:
It's only the first third of the track. The other parts came much later, and that's a story for another time.
When I was 17 years of age I started writing songs with a friend of mine who was much better at lyrics, much more popular with the girls, and could sing better than me. We recorded a couple of sloppy demos in my living room and entered a songwriting contest that we did not win.
Within a year one of the judges of that contest released a single that sounded one hell of a lot like our little half-assed demo. We tried to assert ownership of the material. We lost. We were hilariously out-gunned.
But the song was a top-5 hit. We've never seen a dime. I'm not even allowed to tell you who the artist was. There is an NDR and the penalties are somewhere between severe and "are you fucking kidding me".
From that moment on I've copywritten everything I've done. I joined ASCAP in 1982 to protect my royalties, then switched to BMI in 1992 where I have been ever since. I do make some money at this. Not a ton and certainly not at Taylor Swift's level, but enough to where I have to report it on my taxes.
You may have noticed over the last few years that Ms. Swift has been releasing a "Taylor's Version" of all her early work. She's re-recorded everything, added new material and recovered material that didn't make the cut the first time around, and just about uniformly her versions are light-years better than the originals. I wasn't a "Swifty" in the early part of her career - it all sounded forced to me - but I certainly am one now. She has matured majestically as an artist and in taking ownership over her material she has taken control of her life in a way that very few of us in this business ever do.
It's made her a Billionaire. I'm a Thousandaire. I can be a little bit envious of her success, but I sure as hell don't begrudge her it. She's worked her ass off for it.
In re-recording everything and steering her fans away from the original recordings, she has taken possession of the streaming royalties, the performance royalties, and just about every kind of royalty imaginable. But what she's also taken possession of is the Publishing rights to her new arrangements of her songs and that's the ballgame. When you hear about various artists selling their catalog what this is referring to is the publishing rights. Other than touring it's the most lucrative part of the business these days. Streaming has sucked a lot of the life out of it but it's still there. Radio still pays astonishingly well and Television?
Several years ago one of my songs got played for 38 seconds over the end credits of a German TV show. I got $100.00 for that. I didn't even know it had happened until I got the check.
Owning your own material is a huge win for an artist. The band Kansas signed away their publishing and barely covered their own housing during the first years of their career, and they had Gold records. John Fogerty was so paralyzed by having the publishing rights of his material stolen by the head of his record label that we couldn't write a thing for years. He refused to even play the songs for almost 2 decades because he didn't want other people to be making money off his material.
Thing is, it turns out that Taylor Swift the adult as opposed to the version of Taylor Swift we were first given is considerably more talented than we all realized. She is a much bigger star now that she's in control of her own music. No one, and I mean no one, has ever held all ten slots at the top of the pop charts. Not even The Beatles. Not the Bee Gees at the top of their game.
She got 35,000 people to register to vote with a single Instagram post. It is impressive. But you admit to yourself that if more people voting is bad for you maybe, just maybe, the problem is you.
Sorry to break it to you, but it turns out she's just that good. So you can take your conspiracies, your advice, and your Goddamned Motherfucking MISOGYNY and shove it up your ass.
New Album - Blog #5
Although I really should focus on just the new album, I have the type of mind that can go in many different directions at roughly the same time, so while I'm working on the new album I'm also involved in a couple of side projects (one of which will really confuse many of my friends - more on that in another post) and dusting off some very old material for yet another project - the topic of which is tangentally related to the post up there about Ms. Swift.
I put out my first album in 1990. It was an alt-dance alt-rock album that focused on acoustic instruments, especially my 12-String Guitar. Here's a sample:
It started off as a 4-song demo (the picture of me with the shark on my shoulder) and after "Favorite Partner" became a local club hit I decided to turn the idea into a full album. There is only 12-String Guitar, Bass and drums on the track aside from my vocals.
I got signed by a record label based on the strength of this song and others. 7 of the 10 tracks on that first album got some sort of radio play from NPR's Mornings Become Eclectic to Korea's Armed Forces Radio and multiple stops in between, and I did all that from my apartment in Venice, CA. The label may not have even liked my stuff but they understood sales.
Being signed to a label was no picnic. They wanted me to make that album again - the same but different. It turned out that what the A&R people had pitched was a competitor to Michael Penn - more alt-acoustic rock you can dance to when even Michael Penn didn't want to be the next Michael Penn anymore.
I turned in an album of rocking alternative music and the label promptly shelved it. This was in 1992. It remains shelved to this day. I was able to salvage 5 songs of the 12 recorded because I had started recording them before I singed my record deal, and those songs wound up on my actually released second album.
The record label eventually folded and I decided to go indie. I released my "second" album through an indie label which went nowhere. Everything since then I've done from my own home. The original label I was signed to went out of business in the early 2000's and my master tapes went into a sort of limbo. Technically they were owned by a company that no longer existed and no one kept track of where the masters wound up. The only person who might have known has since died and I considered them lost. I moved on. I've released a lot of music since then.
I will admit that the period between when they shelved my album and when I got my career back on track I went through a period of a sort of paralysis. It's a strange feeling to have someone else own your creative work. It's a hollowed-out feeling knowing that the only reason they own your work is so that no one will ever hear it. Unless you've been through it yourself I have no way to describe it to you. I felt real sympathy towards John Fogarty after that.
Fast forward many many years.
Somewhere in the mid 2010's (I tried to look it up but couldn't find it) there was a warehouse fire in Studio City California. In that warehouse were many items from the film and music industry, stored there for various reasons. It turns out that the masters were in that building, and they (along with many other things) survived the fire. Problem was, they couldn't be kept there anymore and the company that owned the tapes had been dissolved and quite frankly the space had been forgotten by just about everyone.
The tapes had to go somewhere, and so they found me through BMI and sent me the tapes. I received them in June of 2022:
What you see here are 4 reels of 2 inch tape, along with the tracking logs the recording engineer used to keep track of what is played where. They are in my possession now.
I can release that album now. The question is, should I?
Listening to my music from the 1990's I always think to myself about the things I would do differently if I recorded those songs today. The same applies here. Would I put so much Chorus on the bass part for the track "Saint Christopher"? Would I keep the Bagpipe-inspired guitar solo in "Never"? Do I really want to commit to a cover of "Ain't No Sunshine"?
Am I using this as an excuse to not be working on the album that's right in front of me already?
I have too much in front of me, and I recognize that. I'll address this album once the album I've been promising for these past few years is done. Not even going to think about it. I'm going to spend the weekend working out a schedule.
New music this week from New Zealand's Black Smoke Trigger, Mall Girl Office Dog, The Smile, Sarah Jaroz, Blues Traveller, OMD, Sy Smith, Finnoguns Wake and much more! Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2305. This includes tracks from Nickel Creek, Maaya Sakamoto, Kiffie, Ergo, Bria (the comma is part of the name), Kimbra, King Tuff and much more.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
This week on The Album Ahow we dig into our Progressive Metal side with the new album from Australia's Calugula's Horse, entitled "Charcoal Grace". As they describe it: Charcoal Grace is the 6th studio album of the band, and it combines raw rock power with immense emotional depth. Charcoal Grace is borne of the static hopelessness that the pandemic forced upon the band and, indeed, much of the world, these past few years. It is an album reckoning with the experiences and outcomes of this time geared, ultimately, towards catharsis - moving towards a more hopeful future.
At least that's what they put on their Spotify page. ^_^
The Album Show will run this Thursday February 1st at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2405
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday January 31st at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1984 (you can see the full list here - yes, we have a Facebook page now) and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
A quick little rant:
Face it folks, The Republican party of today treats the Constitution the same way they believe in scripture: pcik and choose the passages that supports their beliefs and ignore the ones that contradict them.
And if what they believe/want isn't in there, pretend as if it is.
Which is why we're seeing impeachment hearings of a cabinet secretary over a policy dispute - which is NOT an impeachable offense. They are treating a policy dispute as if it's a crime.
Seems to me that the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince people that they could use the Bible to support their beliefs, instead of letting the Bible guide them to belief. I'm not a Christian but my mom was a Sunday School Teacher.
And because I love you, I share a picture of a lady holding a picture of herself. My dad had that album and I gave it many a listen when I was young.
And boom! Tons of new music, featuring Lola Young, The Fauns, Blackberry Smoke, Ride, Big Big Train, Bleachers, Judas Priest, KMFDM (!), Norah Jones, Robby Krieger and much much more. Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2304. This includes tracks from Metallica and Jethro Tull to indies like AmaltheuS, MOULE, Benjamin Russell with Rob Stuart, Softcult, The Nude Party and much more.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
Not a lot on the new releases list for this week given how nearly everyone got out of the way for the new Green Day album. I'm not going to play that one - I'm sure you're not going to have any trouble finding places that are playing tracks. It's a good album - not their best, but it's pretty solid overall. Instead, I'm going to feature the new album by The Fauns called "How Lost". I added two songs from this album to the playlist including their wonderful remaike of the classic "Doot Doot", originally recorded by Freur (known as Underworld these days) and released in 1983. This 9 track album is the band's first in 10 years, and it's a welcome addition to the playlist. We will play "How Lost" on this week's Album Show.
The Album Show will run this Thursday January 23rd at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2404
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday January 24th at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1990 (you can see the full list here - yes, we have a Facebook page now) and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
Cheap shots:
Ron: Make the USA be Florida! All of us: No thanks! Rom: Well okay then.
I don't mind him going to Cancun. I object to him coming back.
Maybe God didn't need "Moses" as much as he needed a Court Jester.
Well this blog every day thing is off to a spectacular start, isn't it? Sorry, I got distracted.
It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I'm not just some guy with a guitar, a piano and his own recording studio. I am actually a fully trained classical musician, and jazz musician. I started my musical career in jazz, as a saxophonist with lessons from my Grandfather, who was himself a jazz musician. I also studied with famed jazz studio musician Gary Gray. I promise you've heard him even if you don't know his name. You can hear his clarinet on just about every television show for decades. He was a wonder and I perplexed him no end, because I was more interested in writing than playing.
I studied at UCLA, which is also where I studied classical. If you dig into my discography you will find a Piano Sonata, played on a synth piano. I follow the traditional classical form with this, circa early 19th century.
When I studied classical music and its history I was fascinated by an enormous book called Lieber Usualis. Over 2,000 pages, it contains every single note of every single possible mass in Gregorian Chant. Every. Single. Gregorian. Chant.
All of them. I wanted a copy but back then they were hard to come buy. The UCLA library only had a couple dozen copies and many more students studing the music in it. As a flat-broke college freshman there was no way I was going to ever in my life afford that book.
Well, I finally got a copy. 1958 printing, in Latin. Transcribed from the original works that date back to when years had only 3 digits. Now I can't read Latin but I learned all of the parts of the mass, and I can read Gregorian Chant in its original form:
Yes, I can read the music here. I learned how back in the 1980's.
I've been lost in this book for days now. Not the scripture, which I don't give a shit about, but the music. I've always been interested in the music. Raw, primal, emotional. The building blocks of everything we know now about music is in these texts.
Everything. Every single mass is in this book - for every day of the year, including special events and holidays. Vivaldi had to learn this music. Bach had to learn it. Look what they produced.
I've wanted my own copy for over 40 years and now I have one. Suddenly I'm 19 years old again and figuring out the melodies and learning how to sight read this stuff under the steady gaze of my Music History Professor, himself a world class organist who would constantly challenge me and guide me into new ways of thinking about things. Almost everyone hated Music History, but I absolutely loved it. I spent hours and days finding the roots os music I already knew hidden in these mono-harmonic chants and prayers.
In addition, I've had to deal with some issues on the business end of this business. My distributor is claiming that Spotify has informed them of bots inflating the number of streams while Spotify is telling me they've had no such conversation. Distrokid (my distrubitor) is saying one of my releases has been removed by Spotify, when it hasn't. Lots of finger pointing at each other, but nothing has actually changed.
Dealing with the business end of this business is soul crushing, and I do as little of that as I can. You have to be of a certain mindset to be that person, and I'm not one of them.
For the record, my song "Ordinary Life" has NOT been dropped from Spotify, and in fact is one of my better received songs. Not bad for nearly 11 minutes.
I'll get back to work on the album this week. Promise.
New music this week includes a collaboration between Liam Gallagher and John Squire, The Umbrellas, Spells and Curses, Disturbed (with Ann Wilson), Ryan Adams, my friends Fear2Stop, Katy Kirby, Sleater-Kinney, the most recent band to call themselves Whom Gods Destroy and much more! Enjoy!
ROTATING OUT: SONGS LEAVING RADIO FREE CALIFORNIA
This means the music that is aging out is from Radio Free California Episode 2303. This includes tracks from Everything but the Girl, PIL, Prophets of Rage, Fear 2 Stop, The Subways, Billy Nomates, Belle and Sebastian, Daughter, U.S. Girls, New Town, Babebee and more. It was a big week, with 50 tracks. I expect next week to be like that for this year.
We celebrate these songs with a new show that will play on Saturdays at 11am and again at 5pm PST. We will say goodbye to the songs that are now a year on the playlist with one last broadcast, which will be repeated a couple of times during the day.
You can of course still listen to this music - my playlists are still on spotify and you can find them here. They're all searchable as well.
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
Not a lot on the new releases list for this week, but there is a new album from Ryan Adams, who seems to release music at the same pace that Stephen King writes books..This new album features a lot of jangly pop and is well worth the listen, so we will feature these 12 tracks on this week's Album Show.
The Album Show will run this Thursday January 18th at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2403
For those of you who stay away from Spotify this playlist will be played this Wednesday January 17that 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm PST. All of the songs I feature on Radio Free California are played as part of the regular rotation. .
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Sunday at 10am and again at 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. Last week we featured a selection of songs from 1990 (you can see the full list here - yes, we have a Facebook page now) and for next Sunday's show we're going to feature a small selection of songs from.. well you'll have to tune in to find out!
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
No cheap shots today. To have MLK day fall on the day the whitest state in the nation votes (I mean caucuses) seems to say it all.
And becuae I love you, for those of you who haven't yet heard of Wind Rose, I give you the most dedicated to their incredibly specific genre and niche I've ever seen. There is nothing not awesome about this:
