I hope I’m wrong and anxiously await the opportunity to be proved so, but I think we’re heading towards a dreadful Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday. I’ve adamantly disliked the selection of Seth Macfarlane as this year’s host for a variety of reasons (not just because I don’t find him or his creations funny in the slightest, but also because he’s by far the least prominent celebrity to host the program in my memory, diminishing the prestige of the whole endeavor), but it goes beyond that. Nearly every special segment of the show that’s been teased by the producers sounds … Continue reading One for Friday: The Billy Nayer Show, “Hey Boy”

As I’ve recounted, there were many discoveries I made after I arrived at the campus radio in the late-eighties. Among them were a series of records with a distinctive cover design, just the name of an artist atop a big black box with a dizzying array of other bands and performers listed within it. In small print at the very top of the jacket sat three simple words: “The Peel Sessions.” To the best of my knowledge, I hadn’t heard of John Peel, the British radio personality and indefatigable music fan who was the namesake for the records. We didn’t … Continue reading One for Friday: Billy Bragg, “Valentine’s Day Is Over” (Peel Session)

As is often the case when Friday comes around this space, it’s time for another tale of the 90FM “C Stacks.” When I arrived at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, the greater music library was divided into three sections, the bands placed in them sorted roughly by notoriety: the A,B and C Stacks. Obviously the C Stacks was where the most obscure music went to live out its days at the radio station, until some college kid a generation later pulled it out, muttered, “What the hell is this?” and relegated it to the deep storage in the … Continue reading One for Friday: Cruel Story of Youth, “You’re What You Want to Be”