Show #90 November 10, 2012

It's all for you Maria....


Maria- The Pop Go!
Warning Me- Spinning Jennies Strato- sphere
I Wonder What You're Doin' Now- The DomNicks Super Real 
You Wanna Be Like Her- The Go Instant Reaction
Hope Child- Free Energy Stuck On Nothing
James Bond Lives Down Our Street- The Toy Dolls James Bond Lives Down Our Street 
I Don't / She Don't Mind- The Heats Have An Idea 
Rescue Me- The Volcanos The Volcanos
^Burnin' For You- Blue Oyster Cult Burnin' For You 
Back To You- Richard X. Heyman Hey Man! 
Drivin' Thru My Heart- The Donnas Turn 21
Wringin' Wet- Queued Up Queued Up EP
...and I'm Thinking- The Sneetches Sunnyside Down 
Girl From Out Of This World- Material Issue Destination Universe 
*323- Chixdiggit! Chixdiggit 
*5-2-8- Nervous Eaters Eat This! 
*5-45- Gang Of Four Entertainment! 
*925- Research Turtles Research Turtles 
Stray Heart- Green Day ¡Dos!
With A Smile- Big Kid All Kidding Aside
All That Crying- Prime Movers Mr. Beautiful Presents All Hard
Nobody to Blame- Shoes Ignition 
She's So Wild- Meantime Two For One 45
Glitter Best- The Rooks Encore Echoes  
>Giddy Up A Ding Dong- The Sensational Alex Harvey Band The Best Of 
Drunk And Soppy- Senseless Things Postcard C.V. 
Count On Me- The Reducers Guitars, Bass and Drums 
Pleasure Seekers- Advertising Advertising Jingles 
Plain To See- Blue Ash No More No Less 
1-2-3- The Speedies Speedy Delivery 

^Power Pop Peak:  #40 Billboard Hot 100 8/15/81

* SacroSet:  Numbersongs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1973

I know I've said as much before, but ALL KINDSA GIRLS would not be possible without today's technology.  I loved my years in college radio and then in public radio when I'd spend hours in the voluminous record libraries at WERS and WMBR.  Always a methodical type, I went through each station's library from A-Z, pulling out any album or 7" single I didn't know or had ever stoked my curiosity while record shopping.  
 

WMBR Record Library

My time at those stations is the foundation of my musical knowledge.  Even so, thanks to the Internet and iTunes on my trusty Dell laptop I can now put a two hour show together in about 1/10th the time it took back in the day.  I do miss playing records on the radio though, especially slip-cueing for a nice tight segue.  The belt drive turntables at most radio stations took a few seconds to get up to speed so if you wanted to keep it tight you had to slip-cue.  Each turntable (there were always two and preferably three in the studio) had a slipmat that would allow you to hold a record in place while the platter spins underneath.  To slip cue, you would:

• Drop the needle in the lead-in on a 7" single or gap between songs if it was an LP track;
• Listen for the first note or beat of the song and stop the record in place with your finger or thumb (I used a thumb on the outer edge because since birth I've been anal about touching the surface of records);
• Turn off the turntable and spin the record backward so you are just ahead of that first sound (this is where the idea of DJ scratching came from)
• When you're ready to play the song, you hold down the record with your finger or thumb, turn on the turntable to get it up to speed and then release the record at the appropriate time.  

It could get tricky, especially coming out of a break when you'd need to hold down the record, power up the turntable and pot it up (turn up the volume on the mixing board) while you were talking.  I suppose it says a lot about me that to find a picture of slip-cueing on the Internet, I had to go back to the early 60's.  I can assure you that when I got into radio it had been a LONG time since DJ's wore suits on the air.  I started in college radio because I loved music, but I got a really big kick out of the technical side of being a DJ as well.  I'd even bring in some of my own cherished records to play on the air.  This was a big deal because excessive slip-cueing causes "cue burn," a crackly sound that mars the first few seconds of a song.  Plus you'd never know how long it had been since the turntable needles had been changed. 

In my first few months at Emerson I had gotten pretty good at slip-cueing at closed circuit WECB before I did my first show that fall on WERS (a broadcast station with 3000 watts and an antenna on top of The Pru!!).  Yet, for some reason when I got ready to play my first song I decided to use the turntable remotes on the board.  When using the remotes you'd have to back up from the first sound on the record to give the turntable time to get up to speed- about a quarter revolution for a 33 1/3 rpm album and half a revolution for a 45 rpm single.  I cued up my first record, Elvis Costello's "From Head To Toe" single, did my top of the hour ID, hit the remote and heard "rrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr."  The remote had started the turntable but didn't engage so the record stopped spinning.  Panicking I slapped the manual button on the turntable which got it going but since the song had already started I had to listen as it excruciatingly got up to speed "rrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR."  Jim Harris said he was listening back in Duxbury, waving his arms around in an empathetic panic trying to push "air buttons" and save me.  My broadcast career had begun!

Admittedly an iTunes crossfade sounds pretty hamfisted compared to a tight slip-cue, but what are you gonna do; KSVY doesn't even have turntables and playing CDs is no fun at all.  I've looked at software designed to replicate the "turntable experience" but everything I've seen is even more complicated and time consuming.  So it is what it is, though I can still hear my college radio self shout "lame" at some of my segues.  On the other hand, without modern technology there is no way I would have been able to play "I Wonder What You're Doing Now" from The DomNick's new album Super Real on tonight's show.  Emboldened by the luck I had getting some Portland bands to send me their music a few shows back, I sent an e-mail to Dom Mariani when I heard about the new album.

The DomNicks (Dom Mariani with Telecaster)

Now Dom Mariani is not just "some guy," he is an undisputed Power Pop Genius and the pride of Perth in Western Australia.  His groups like The Stems, The Someloves and DM3 have put out a mind blowing amount of great music over the years.   Now working by day as an architectural designer, Dom is still going strong in The DomNicks, partnering with Nick Shepherd of '77 era UK punk band The Cortinas and the post Mick Jones "Cut The Crap" version of The Clash (though I choose not to hold this against him).  Anyway, Dom Mariani got right back to me with two tracks from the new album.  He didn't even seem all that freaked out when I called him a "Power Pop Genius," admittedly in an e-mail it's probably hard to tell if someone thinks you are a dangerous stalker-type person.  What's important is that Dom Mariani wrote back to me and his new songs ROCK! 

Stream this week's show here, to download right click and "Save Link As:"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #90