As I’ve acknowledged previously, I and my college radio brethren shared a certain susceptibility to cover songs. That weakness increased immeasurably when the song getting the cover treatment was something that already fit into our alternative music format, a track we’d played exhaustively in its original derivation. It’s not like the Pixies had trouble getting airplay on their own, but covering a Jesus and Mary Chain song could make even their most skeptical fans in college radio (that would’ve been me) swoon. At my station, it was also sort of a stealth means to get around programming policy designed to … Continue reading One for Friday: The Wonder Stuff, “Closer to Fine”

It’s clear that individuals can dictate how an entire radio station–especially one as loosely structured programmatically as a college radio station–sounds. Commonly, this comes from those in leadership positions, particular whoever has the task of sorting through the various music that shows up in the mailbox and making sure it gets into the studio, probably with some sort of note on guidance affixed to it for deejays who may never have heard of the artists in question. Sometimes, though, it manifests as a broader tribute. At the station of my undergraduate years, there was a long-lasting, I believe wholly unintentional … Continue reading One for Friday: In Tua Nua, “All I Wanted”