This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” I took my time getting through college. I didn’t want to leave. Sure, a certain fear of … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Sugar, “A Good Idea”

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” Other bands meant more to me personally and yet others were more dominant on the WWSP-90FM airwaves, … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The Smithereens, “Top of the Pops”

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” I’ve written about Too Much Joy’s Cereal Killers before, detailing my chilled-to-the-bone quest through the record stores … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Too Much Joy, “King of Beers”

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” Tracy Tracy hung over the beat up old mattress in my college bedroom. Well, she was there in … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The Primitives, “Sick of It”

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.”   My inaugural year at WWSP-90FM was a whirlwind. I was atypically forthright in inserting myself into the station … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Violent Femmes, “Fool in the Full Moon”

I can think of no better way to explain why I think so highly of Rachel Esser than to share the text she sent me, reporting on her progress in writing this guest post: “I wrote a whole thing for a Bearobics song, but then I remembered ‘Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en.’” Rachel takes special pleasure in anything that can honestly be described as “bonkers,” and especially enjoys movies in which people slice off someone’s face in order to use the resulting nasty sheet of skin as a mask, a quality that would frankly be disturbing in anyone but her. … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative, “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?”

The man who provides today’s entry goes by many names. For our purposes, we’ll opt for Phantom Third Channel, the ingenious moniker he adopts when overseeing his regular shift at WPRK. Or, for that matter, one of the countless substitute shifts he takes on during any given week, being a willing slave to music like few others I know. By simply moving his personal record collection to a storefront he would immediately have an inventory that would make any competitors shudder, agape with wonder at how they could ever keep up. Record-shopping with him is a delight, if only because … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Russ Morgan & the Gay Sisters, “Metro Polka”

Holly Tedder is simply one of the funniest people I know. As is often the case with the individuals in my life who fit into that category, she also loves to laugh (and has a great one), and some of my proudest, happiest moments at WPRK involved coming up with some snarky comment that she found entertaining. I always marveled at her ability to knowledgeably approach music, locking in on how it made her feel, but also how it elicited those feeling, expounding on the impact of minor keys, chord changes and other intricacies of songcraft. The only thing she … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The Candy Bars, “Enough to Choke a Cold Air”

I usually check with the authors of these guest posts as to how they would like to be billed in their introduction, but I’ve known all along that I was going to insist upon referring to today’s wordsmith as Phil Defiler. Using the moniker that links him to his beloved music project is the best way I can think of to pay tribute to his immense, playful talent, which is itself only made more endearing because of his modesty. I can’t even begin to describe the reasons why, but seeing him play live in the WPRK studios during one of … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Mary Margaret O’Hara, “Body’s in Trouble”