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RIP Bob Moog

It's unfortunate to be updating Radio KRUD today as the bearer of bad news - the inventor of one of the most (in)famous synthesizers has passed away. Known for his contributions to electronic music creation, who knows how music would have evolved without him.

RIP, Bob Moog.

"Air on a G String", performed on a Moog synthesizer - Wendy Carlos

Do Foxes Wear Gloves?

Whoa, I was all set to write a post about a metal band then all of a sudden I found myself getting deeper and deeper into pondering the overall genre of heavy metal and how all its subgenres relate to one another. I'll have to back away for a little bit, compose myself, and try to come up with some interesting discourse for a future post. In the meantime I'll satisfy your musical desires with a band called Foxgluv.


D Lux D Coda & DJ Kin

And don't think I'm using this band as a desperate throwback. I've been interested in them ever since I found their song "Treats & the Tricker" on betterPropaganda. It's been one of the songs I've listened to the most in the past couple of months with it's incredibly groovy, laid back beats.

So I finally browsed through the band's site, previewed their album Flame & Fortune, and was very surprised by what I found. They weren't what I was expecting after listening to "Treats & the Tricker" but I really liked what heard nonetheless. Imagine a trip-hop band with a style like Deee-Lite that took a lesson from Paul Simon's worldly influenced Graceland. Got an idea of what they sound like? Well you're wrong. Foxgluv is one of those bands that's hard to pigeonhole, so it's hard for me to give a good impression of what they sound like. All I can tell is that they are a trippy band that comes up with some really solid grooves. Check them out. Even if you don't like their sound, it will be reassuring to find something so unique.

Buy Foxgluv's album Flame & Fortune

Foxgluv - Treats & the Tricker

Dufus

I think this band's name describes me pretty well in terms of my inability to keep this blog updated. Anyway...


Dufus

Dufus presents a deep and transcendent mixture of confrontational songwriting, whip-smart lyricism and massive beats interspersed with avant-punknoise and groundbreaking improvisation; they are helping to define the curve for an awakening generation of artful rock musicians. At least that's what their bio says. I've also heard them being compared to Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, which strikes me as being fairly accurate. If you look at Zappa's work, he had a tendency to experiment with pop conventions and end up with utter insanity. But it was good insanity. Dufus does something very similar.

If it pleases the audience, I put forth "More Girl Cops" as an example. It's wild, chaotic yet it's quite catchy with it's memorable chugging bassline and a hook laden chorus. The song also has the satisfyingly orchestral feeling that Zappa's work had, giving it a very complex edge that will never bore the listener's ear. And let's not forget the off the wall lyrics. Very important. Just the chorus itself is journey to the land of craziness. "More girl cops / If you want to save the world / More girl cops / Less cops." What the fuck does that mean? I have my interpretations, but I will leave them unknown. Just enjoy Dufus and hope that I'll post more frequently.

Buy Dufus's album 1:3:1

Dufus - More Girl Cops

Music Midtown in Atlanta, GA: Day 2

This is more of a narrative of what happened at Music Midtown in Atlanta, GA on Saturday...

regarding karaoke:
1. been there
2. did that
3. bought the t-shirt

they played an hour-long set and i had signed up just before they started - i was #6 in line or so, but a few radio celebrities were inserted in the middle of people so they could sing. there were a few hundred people there watching/nearby (a LOT more than i expected, haha). i was nervous up there while they did the guitar solo since i wasn't sure how they'd segue into the actual song and when to be ready for it. afterwards, the entire band said that i did a fantastic job and gave me high-fives, guys working backstage said i was awesome, and a few different people who were in the crowd said that i did a great job (gary can vouch for these, hahaha). i told them all that it was my first time doing karaoke, hahaha! it's a lot tougher being a rock star than you think - i could barely hear myself up there! i guess i did a good job considering the circumstances (never done karaoke, can't hear myself, in front of hundreds of people), hahaha...


and as a preemptive faq:
1. i can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a video of me singing
2. the song was "you really got me" by van halen, with intro guitar solo song "eruption"

it rained about 90% of the day. after karaoke we went to see robert randolph and the family band, and it rained for most (if not all) of their set, but they did such non-stop awesome amazing rock that it was worth it - we were all dancing and singing and cheering in the rain! he played a few covers (including a hendrix cover as well as a cover of michael jackson's "billy jean", during which he passed the microphone to an audience member to sing), and was generally all-around amazing up on stage too, playing practically all the instruments at his disposal up there. we got him to come out for an encore (partially since we were awesome for watching out in the rain). i had originally seen the band perform on jay leno, and i thought their songs were so catchy that i ended up buying a few of their songs even before their set on the show ended. it's nice to see that while their music is good, their live show is even better!


afterwards gary went to go see some other bands and i wanted to stick around for john fogerty... the only song i was able to attach to his name was "centerfield" and i was hoping to see him play that, so imagine my surprise when i realized john fogerty == creedence clearwater revival! that was a pleasant surprise, especially since i already knew the lyrics to many of the songs he played, haha! i was even right up close for his set, moving up to within 5' of the front (about 3 people back) before the set.


last band i saw was the black eyed peas - it was kind of funny and appropriate, my coworker keith sent me a text message about the black eyed peas' latest album just before their set started, so i told him i was going to see them in a few minutes and made him jealous, haha... since it was still raining off and on, i found a spot directly in front of the soundstage (i actually leaned against it during the set) - this way if the wind blew the rain certain directions, i didn't get wet! not that it did much good as i still ended up soaked. i wasn't familar with many of their songs, but they played a few that i knew ("hey mama", "don't funk with my heart", "let's get it started in here" were a few i knew the titles to). unfortunately i was much further back (since i was where the soundstage was), so i didn't get good pictures.


when they finished, i ended up just walking back to the hotel since everything else was either finished or finishing, and when i got back i had to hang up my clothes to dry since i was SOAKED. my feet amazingly enough stayed dry the entire day, even slopping through puddles and mud, hah!

Music Midtown in Atlanta, GA: Day 1

This is more of a narrative of what happened during Friday at Music Midtown in Atlanta, GA...
Almost all of the pictures taken today were on a disposable digital camera, so there will not be many pictures until I can get it developed.

i'm tempted GOING to do karaoke tomorrow (in a sort of "damn the torpedos, full speed ahead" sense) - not only is it going to be karaoke, but it's going to be AWESOME KARAOKE. know why?

1. HEAVY METAL MUSIC
2. FULL LIVE BACKING ROCK BAND
3. GET TO SAY PERFORMED ON STAGE AT MUSIC MIDTOWN IN FRONT OF "THOUSANDS"*

seriously! i saw the coolest thing when i was walking around - before any bands were really scheduled to play we heard a cover of "i wanna be sedated" by the ramones, so we went in search to find out where this music was coming from and found this band playing. when the song finished, the guy on stage left and it soon became apparent that this was karaoke that anybody could sign up for! it's a group called metalsome monday that performs for karaoke, and the band is AWESOME! i was impressed with how well it makes everything sound!

after we saw metalsome monday we saw a few songs by red letter agent, got some food, and wandered to the stage that lou reed would be at. when we arrived at that stage we saw the second half of francine reed doing blues/rock, and she was really getting into the act and was very nice and friendly - i heard her start "one monkey don't stop no show" (i had a version already by someone else and liked the song) and these girls beckoned to me from the best buy tent so i went over and saw they had cds of different artists there for sale, so i bought francine reed's cd since it had that song on it, haha... afterwards she was signing autographs, so i had my cd booklet signed by her - she signed it "to glenn - love & peace & chicken grease - francine reed" and said that nobody else had theirs signed like that, hahahaha. i got my picture taken with her too - she had me come around to the side of the table where she was sitting for autographs, and i told her that now i felt like a big shot getting to be on that side of the table and that made her and the people in line laugh.


in between sets they would pop this message on the screen, where if you sent a text message to a certain number it would pop up on the screen in front of the crowd, hence this picture:


my friend gary left shortly after lou reed started to go see interpol. lou reed was awesome! he even did this amazing guitar solo and ended up blowing an amp of his and had to have a replacement take its place ("this one's a real vintage amp!"). when it blew he started singing something like "lou reed murdered his amp down in atlanta... you guys paid all the money and what do you get to see? ME!" and started flexing his muscles while the amp was switched, haha. i didn't really know many of his songs offhand but a few sounded familiar.

the white stripes were INSANE. jack white was going non-stop around the stage from instrument to instrument, and meg white was on the drums like crazy too. again, i hadn't really heard much of their stuff and only barely knew of some of their work, but it grew on me as the set went on. they played pretty much non-stop until 11:30 and then said "goodnight" and left the stage. we all stayed there for 10-15 minutes and kept cheering until they came out for an encore, and then they said they thanked us and left again.


picture by gregor smith
used under a creative commons license
* "thousands" not guaranteed. attendance at fesival = thousands. people watching karaoke much less

Marching down south

Alright, folks, I'm going to be motoring on down to Megs' former hometown of Atlanta for the next few days in order to go to my second ever Music Midtown - anybody local to that area, feel free to shoot me any suggestions at the radiokrud@gmail.com email, and everybody: Dave's going to be holding down the fort - what he says, goes! Hahaha...

Anyway, expect pictures and reports as events warrant!

Songs & Sounds of the Sea / Star Wars / Fresh KRUD

*whew* School's finally finishing up for the year, and even though I only take classes part-time it gets tough to take both school part-time while working full time during the year as well... hopefully now that it's summer I'll be able to keep up with this site a bit more now... then again, I end up saying that each time I update and then I disappear for another few months. Well, hopefully this post should make it worthwhile - two out of print albums and a radio show for your listening pleasure!

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Songs & Sounds of the Sea


I don't know if you remember, but the last proper update I did was of the album Mellow With Ale from the Horn by John Roberts and Tony Barrand... this album, published by National Geographic (one of the last groups I'd expect to be publishing music, most people - myself included - usually know National Geographic for their excellent articles and fantastic photography). This album also features John Roberts and Tony Barrand, as well as about another half-dozen folk singers, all doing sea shanties with sound-effects that make you feel like you're putting out to sea on an old whaling expedition. It's very authentic-sounding, and it was kind of amusing to read people's reactions to similar albums currently available for purchase and lament the fact that this album was so much better and how their record player has since died and they can't listen to it anymore. Yes, the effect this album has at making you feel as if you're at sea is that good...



The record album itself has a fantastic "booklet" (actually part of the album's cover, it opens for more pages with info and diagrams about old sailing ships as well as all the lyrics), and as part of the booklet it has several pictures, each awesome to see.







This has been recorded from an old record we've had here for ages, and I have to say that the quality isn't that bad - except for the rare skips due to regular use of the record, it's a pretty enjoyable listen. I would have had this album up here ages ago, except I was trying to scan in more of the booklet because it really is a nice addition to the music, and very informative too. Unfortunately, with the size of the album being too large of a size when opened to fit on the scanner, and attempts at combining bits and pieces of scans together not working well, you'll just have to settle for those few scans of images from the album and look at those when you listen to these:

Along The Pier / Clear Away the Track
The Dreadnought
Money in Both Pockets
Blow, Ye Winds
Boston Harbor (With A Big Bow Wow)
Jolly Roving Tar
Patsy Campbell
The Whale Catchers
Wheat in the Ear
The Little Beggar Man
Johnny Todd
Sail Away, Ladies
The Diamond
Deil Stick The Minister
Rio Grande
Old Molly Hare
Can't You Dance The Polka
Fiddle Medley
Captain Kidd
Liverpool Hornpipe
Queer Bungo Rye
Devil Among The Tailors
Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her

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Star Wars: by The Electronic Moog Orchestra

A Galaxy Far, Far Away has once again come to A Theater Near You, so to celebrate its return (ssh, I haven't seen it yet, don't tell me anything about it!) I've got another out o' print album for you to check out: "Star Wars" as performed by The Electronic Moog Orchestra.

If you don't know what a Moog organ is, this can help out much more than I can ever say about it, except that the music produced by a Moog synthesizer is very odd and unearthly... kind of like disco! This album - though it's all songs from the original movie - made sure to let people know that it wasn't the original soundtrack with a special notice on the cover notifying people... I could just imagine people buying the record hoping to hear John Williams and getting electronic beeps and boops instead!

Most of the songs on this album don't really translate well to a Moog synthesizer... "The Imperial March", for example, starts off ok, but soon it evolves into more of a disco hit, and even from there it soon sounds like a bad cover of "In A Gadda-Da-Vida" with random guitar twangs and such. Other tracks (or "Cantina Band" more specifically) sound like what the Moog synthesizer was specifically designed for, and as a result I think that it even surpasses the original version!

Main Title
Leia's Theme
Imperial Attack
Ben's Death & TIE Fighter Attack
Cantina Band
Throne Room & End Credits

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Fresh KRUD

Recently Dave and I were able to record our own mini radio show along with my friend and co-worker Keith - it's actually about 72 minutes long (fits perfectly on a cd!), and we go over a few different songs that we've talked about on here in a little more depth and also introduce some new stuff that we're going to be posting about soon as well. Keith also has a 'zine he writes for ("Undisputed") that covers some local goings-on for the Baltimore area, as well as articles on all sorts of various entertainment stuff - they've even got an interview with Baltimore Oriole Brian Roberts in the latest edition - not too shabby! They've been trying to give the magazine away (as in FREE!) at various record stores and such around the area, but if you're interested in getting a copy of the magazine or seeing what they're about you can send the crew an email at undisputed.magazine@verizon.net... if you'd like to check out our radio show and hear what we sound like as amateur radio djs, give us a listen here... not only would you get to hear what we sound like and hear us making fools of ourselves (as well as hearing my laptop's fan come on :P), but you'd also get to hear what we're going to be posting about in the upcoming weeks, and at the very end you get a special listening treat and info about hearing more of that listening treat, so give it a listen!