Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 2, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 1
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 2, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 1
KEOS is all volunteer. Even the secretary works without pay. That means that for something to happen around here, someone must decide to do the task. KEOS receives copies of albums that music companies want to be played on the air. We receive a huge number of albums. As each album is received, the music director assigns the album a number in our music data base with a notation on which genre the album is in and places a date on a sticker on the back of the CD as to when it was set on the shelf to be reviewed. Each album has to be reviewed for FCC violations. The music director also wants us to make some comments so that DJ's can decide whether they want to play a given track from a given album. It looks like to me that most reviewers just look for the seven dirty words and get on with it. The CD's to be reviewed sit on a shelf in the back until someone reviews them. Most people here at KEOS review albums of people they have heard of. The tastes of the volunteers is pretty wide, but they do not include every single possible artist.
When I got to KEOS in December, 2004, I noticed that some of the albums had been on the shelf for years. During the Christmas holidays of 2004, I looked for all the albums that had been on the shelf for over a year. Some had been there two years, some three, one had been there since 1996. I listened to each album on my computer at home. You didn't know you can listen to a CD on your computer using RealPlayer? Well, you can. I would play solitaire as I listened to the music, because by in large these were singer/song writer albums by guys who really should not have been singing. Their songs were sung in a high whiny voice that brought to mind self indulgent egotists. Why these idiots thought they could sing, I did not know. I mean, for a song to work, the music and the lyrics and the vocals should meld and make a whole that is better than each part. I found that on 90% of these albums the singer was fighting the instruments. His or her voice could not meld with the instruments. In short the vocals separated from the music like oil separates from water. Except the vocals would either be overpowered by the music or the vocals would play on top of the music without the music helping much.
So I went through almost 150 albums and found only four songs I liked. You heard me. Four songs. I transferred three of them to my disk drive. The fourth one was too sad.
Now there were four albums I refused to review. One was a Dark Metal album where the guy tried to make out like they were demons. Another volunteer does heavy metal, so she took it on. Another one was a compilation of cowboy songs. The third was 48 rounds. You haven't heard of rounds? Oh, yeah, they were huge... during the Middle Ages about 400 years ago. An example of rounds is "Row, Row your Boat". The first set of people do "Row, Row your Boat" The second set start "Row, Row, Your boat', when the first set get to "Gently down the stream", then the third set of people start on "Row, Row your Boat" when the second set of people get to "Gently down the stream" and the first set get to "Merrily merrily, life is but a dream". Those albums are going to set on the shelf until hell freezes over, because if I don't review them, then no one will.
If you listen to KEOS lately, you have been hearing my voice way too often during the week. I do a classic rock show from 2-4pm on Mondays. I do this show from 11pm until I quit. On Wednesdays, I do a Celtic show from 10am-noon. On Fridays, I do a Jazz and Blues show from 10am-noon and on Fridays I do a miscellaneous show from 2-4pm.
KEOS buys programs or downloads them and plays them for free. Programs like Democracy Now! and BBC News and Free Speech Radio News come directly off the satellite feed and they cost a huge amount. Programs like Earthsongs or Progressive Radio cost only the time needed to download them and burn a CD. What that means is that someone has to be here to switch to a new program. That means that I am here from 4-5pm on Mondays, 8:30am-10am on Wednesdays, 4-5pm on Thursdays, 5-6pm on Saturdays and on Fridays, I am here from 8:30am to 7pm. You heard me almost 12 hours. What I do to pass the time between announcements on the air or switching to a new program is review albums that have sat on the shelf for over a year.
Due to the fact that I have been weeding out the really bad ones, I have discovered some albums that are very good by my standards. I've been looking up the websites of people who do a good job and writing in their guest book or just sending them email, letting them know that someone has heard their music and appreciates it.
I live by a truism:
It means that you have to compliment people when you think they have done a good job in their profession. Otherwise, the least qualified in a field triumph by default and Evil grows.
I reviewed an album by Ray Herndon, Livin' The Dream. This one was especially good. I was impressed enough to go out to his web site and complement him on the album in his guestbook. I had never done that before. As I said, most singer/songwriter albums are whiny egotistical self praise projects. Livin' The Dream is the exception. Ray sent me email thanking me. He wanted to set up a phone interview. I told him that I did not think we could do that. I found out that we could from one of the other volunteers. The music director said that phoners were not a good idea. We needed live music to make it work. Like I said, I do Open Air Live on Fridays, but we haven't had a live band in a while. I invited him to stop by should he ever be in town.
Here's where it starts getting interesting. I got an invitation to review another album. You heard me. Someone associated with Gary Portnoy sent me email after seeing the review I had left at Ray Herndon's site. She wanted me to find the album by Gary Portnoy and review it. I went to Gary's website and discovered that this is the guy who did the theme song for the TV show Cheers. I checked for Gary Portnoy in the KEOS library and no luck. I invited Gary to show up live on KEOS and let it go at that.
If any of you had checked my website, you would know that I have been posting my playlists for these shows multiple shows I do. Don't know why, but it has seemed like a good idea. I got a weird email from a guy in Emerald Rose. He wanted to know which station I was with. I was set to tell him that I did not particularly like his album, when my computer locked up. When I restarted, I simply said that if he wanted feedback, I would give it to him. Who knows I could have changed all of creation by doing it that way. I mean, Emerald Rose does Celtic music and they're pretty good. I just got email back from the guy on Sunday. I went back and found his album and
A guy named Allan Harris put out an album dealing with the West from the Black perspective. I reviewed it for the station. I was going to compliment him on his album. Then I went to his website. Dudes and dudettes, that site is too weird for me. Look at it yourself. The guy is asking $15K for someone to be his executive producer. That's too strange for an unknown singer/songwriter to ask. Yes, he wants you to give him $15K and you can become his close, personal friend. No, I am not making this up. When I saw that, I knew this guy didn't need any praise. He praised himself every damn day, so he would probably be unmoved by anything I would say.
Friday, I found an album that had been sitting on the shelf since March 12, 2004. I don't know how I missed it before, but I had. So I listened to it and it is VERY good. The album is called Mexico by Stan Swiniarski. The reason it is good by my standards is that it is for adults. I have been very upset that too many songs exult the child in all of us. Our culture causes us to put off growing up.
Anyway. Tonight I am going to play some music that I have discovered in my safari through the sludge of singer/songwriters. Then I will make some political statements based on the music. I did this about three weeks ago. The program then was pretty good by my standards. Since I am the only one here and you do not exist, I will proceed as if it mattered.
KEOS is all volunteer. Even the secretary works without pay. That means that for something to happen around here, someone must decide to do the task. KEOS receives copies of albums that music companies want to be played on the air. We receive a huge number of albums. As each album is received, the music director assigns the album a number in our music data base with a notation on which genre the album is in and places a date on a sticker on the back of the CD as to when it was set on the shelf to be reviewed. Each album has to be reviewed for FCC violations. The music director also wants us to make some comments so that DJ's can decide whether they want to play a given track from a given album. It looks like to me that most reviewers just look for the seven dirty words and get on with it. The CD's to be reviewed sit on a shelf in the back until someone reviews them. Most people here at KEOS review albums of people they have heard of. The tastes of the volunteers is pretty wide, but they do not include every single possible artist.
When I got to KEOS in December, 2004, I noticed that some of the albums had been on the shelf for years. During the Christmas holidays of 2004, I looked for all the albums that had been on the shelf for over a year. Some had been there two years, some three, one had been there since 1996. I listened to each album on my computer at home. You didn't know you can listen to a CD on your computer using RealPlayer? Well, you can. I would play solitaire as I listened to the music, because by in large these were singer/song writer albums by guys who really should not have been singing. Their songs were sung in a high whiny voice that brought to mind self indulgent egotists. Why these idiots thought they could sing, I did not know. I mean, for a song to work, the music and the lyrics and the vocals should meld and make a whole that is better than each part. I found that on 90% of these albums the singer was fighting the instruments. His or her voice could not meld with the instruments. In short the vocals separated from the music like oil separates from water. Except the vocals would either be overpowered by the music or the vocals would play on top of the music without the music helping much.
So I went through almost 150 albums and found only four songs I liked. You heard me. Four songs. I transferred three of them to my disk drive. The fourth one was too sad.
Now there were four albums I refused to review. One was a Dark Metal album where the guy tried to make out like they were demons. Another volunteer does heavy metal, so she took it on. Another one was a compilation of cowboy songs. The third was 48 rounds. You haven't heard of rounds? Oh, yeah, they were huge... during the Middle Ages about 400 years ago. An example of rounds is "Row, Row your Boat". The first set of people do "Row, Row your Boat" The second set start "Row, Row, Your boat', when the first set get to "Gently down the stream", then the third set of people start on "Row, Row your Boat" when the second set of people get to "Gently down the stream" and the first set get to "Merrily merrily, life is but a dream". Those albums are going to set on the shelf until hell freezes over, because if I don't review them, then no one will.
If you listen to KEOS lately, you have been hearing my voice way too often during the week. I do a classic rock show from 2-4pm on Mondays. I do this show from 11pm until I quit. On Wednesdays, I do a Celtic show from 10am-noon. On Fridays, I do a Jazz and Blues show from 10am-noon and on Fridays I do a miscellaneous show from 2-4pm.
KEOS buys programs or downloads them and plays them for free. Programs like Democracy Now! and BBC News and Free Speech Radio News come directly off the satellite feed and they cost a huge amount. Programs like Earthsongs or Progressive Radio cost only the time needed to download them and burn a CD. What that means is that someone has to be here to switch to a new program. That means that I am here from 4-5pm on Mondays, 8:30am-10am on Wednesdays, 4-5pm on Thursdays, 5-6pm on Saturdays and on Fridays, I am here from 8:30am to 7pm. You heard me almost 12 hours. What I do to pass the time between announcements on the air or switching to a new program is review albums that have sat on the shelf for over a year.
Due to the fact that I have been weeding out the really bad ones, I have discovered some albums that are very good by my standards. I've been looking up the websites of people who do a good job and writing in their guest book or just sending them email, letting them know that someone has heard their music and appreciates it.
I live by a truism:
"Proclaim the Good, Lest Evil reign unopposed."
It means that you have to compliment people when you think they have done a good job in their profession. Otherwise, the least qualified in a field triumph by default and Evil grows.
I reviewed an album by Ray Herndon, Livin' The Dream. This one was especially good. I was impressed enough to go out to his web site and complement him on the album in his guestbook. I had never done that before. As I said, most singer/songwriter albums are whiny egotistical self praise projects. Livin' The Dream is the exception. Ray sent me email thanking me. He wanted to set up a phone interview. I told him that I did not think we could do that. I found out that we could from one of the other volunteers. The music director said that phoners were not a good idea. We needed live music to make it work. Like I said, I do Open Air Live on Fridays, but we haven't had a live band in a while. I invited him to stop by should he ever be in town.
Here's where it starts getting interesting. I got an invitation to review another album. You heard me. Someone associated with Gary Portnoy sent me email after seeing the review I had left at Ray Herndon's site. She wanted me to find the album by Gary Portnoy and review it. I went to Gary's website and discovered that this is the guy who did the theme song for the TV show Cheers. I checked for Gary Portnoy in the KEOS library and no luck. I invited Gary to show up live on KEOS and let it go at that.
If any of you had checked my website, you would know that I have been posting my playlists for these shows multiple shows I do. Don't know why, but it has seemed like a good idea. I got a weird email from a guy in Emerald Rose. He wanted to know which station I was with. I was set to tell him that I did not particularly like his album, when my computer locked up. When I restarted, I simply said that if he wanted feedback, I would give it to him. Who knows I could have changed all of creation by doing it that way. I mean, Emerald Rose does Celtic music and they're pretty good. I just got email back from the guy on Sunday. I went back and found his album and
A guy named Allan Harris put out an album dealing with the West from the Black perspective. I reviewed it for the station. I was going to compliment him on his album. Then I went to his website. Dudes and dudettes, that site is too weird for me. Look at it yourself. The guy is asking $15K for someone to be his executive producer. That's too strange for an unknown singer/songwriter to ask. Yes, he wants you to give him $15K and you can become his close, personal friend. No, I am not making this up. When I saw that, I knew this guy didn't need any praise. He praised himself every damn day, so he would probably be unmoved by anything I would say.
Friday, I found an album that had been sitting on the shelf since March 12, 2004. I don't know how I missed it before, but I had. So I listened to it and it is VERY good. The album is called Mexico by Stan Swiniarski. The reason it is good by my standards is that it is for adults. I have been very upset that too many songs exult the child in all of us. Our culture causes us to put off growing up.
Anyway. Tonight I am going to play some music that I have discovered in my safari through the sludge of singer/songwriters. Then I will make some political statements based on the music. I did this about three weeks ago. The program then was pretty good by my standards. Since I am the only one here and you do not exist, I will proceed as if it mattered.
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