+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Finley Breeze #1 RADIO - suckers never play me... December 15, 1994 Assorted masthead designations: Sean Murphy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dedicated to Samuel F.B. Morse, creator of the telegraph, and Mark S. Cornick, creator of _Telegraph_, both of whom inspired this foray into randomness. ============== The Articles ============== 1. Invisible airwaves, crackle with life... - Sean Murphy 2. Fear of an Ethnohat Planet - Anne Zender 3. Thoughts from Dann Medinn 4. Spilling the new blood in DC... - Rob Thornton ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Invisible Airwaves (The Spirit of Radio) Sean Murphy What's happened to the radio? Why can't I hear anything more creative than the new Pearl Jam LP on my local stations? Why does nobody else notice or care? As a result of my current job situation and my natural inclination toward hearing how other people string songs together, I've been listening to the radio a lot. What I've heard has been some of the most depressing shit in my life, enough to make me almost give up on the concept of radio as a creative entity. If I hadn't been a DJ for four years, I'd probably think that it was all pre-plotted lists of what's "hot" and "hip" and "what the kids want to hear." In any event, I'd like to spend a little time critiquing the two stations I listen to most often before turning back to the loftier, philosophical concerns (i.e the bullshit). Station #1: WARW, 94.7 FM. "Arrow 94.7" This station just started up this summer, and they are the official "seventies rock" station of Washington DC. Their on-air slogans pretty much sum it all up... o You know every song we play... o Here's another Washington classic, straight from the Arrow 94.7 "8-TRACK TAPE LIBRARY" o No headbanging heavy metal, no bubblegum oldies... o The 70s... without the leisure suits... The weird part is, they're still trying to figure out their identity. It's not a true "classic rock" station - no classic rock station would play the Eurythmics or Simple Minds or Split Enz. And they're certainly not an oldies station - no doo-wop, no rockabilly, no soul. My biggest problem with the station is that it seems to have a "only 2-3 songs by this band" mindset, with a few exceptions (Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, Billy Joel). If they play a Cream song, it's Badge. CCR: Up Around The Bend. Rolling Stones: Tumbling Dice. With so many songs out there from these bands, the decision to stick with 2 or 3 "not-so-obvious ones" is really frustrating. (By not-so-obvious, I mean that they don't play Sunshine of Your Love, they don't play Proud Mary, they don't play Sympathy For The Devil.) It's a radio station defined more by what it's not than by what it is, and that leaves it rather lost. There's a lot of potential for a station which celebrates all the forms of musical expression from the 70s, but this one is nowhere near that level. Station #2: WHF$, 99.1 FM. Modern Rock. Yes, a commercial alternative station. It's the closest thing we've got to a college station, since the only true college station in the metro-DC area is a 5-watter (WMUC, over at the U. of Maryland). As far as the genre of "commercial alternative" stations go, I've gotta give HFS some credit... they are willing to take a couple more risks than WFNX in Boston or WDRE in Philly and New York. All the same, this station is really fucking predictable. If I've listened for 2 hours, I've heard a Pearl Jam song, that fucking evil song by Pete Droge (if you don't love me I'll kill myself), and one song that's supposed to remind me of my alternative heritage: the Ramones, Squeeze, Modern English, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., maybe Roxy Music. Then there's the stuff that they play that nobody else will touch (and rightfully so): Jeff Buckley ("Grace" = Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" with acoustic guitars. wow! how original! what a fucking disgrace to his father's good name). Tori Amos (been there, done that, marginally better by Kate Bush). An often-shitty local band. And finally, a redeeming song or two - Green Day (more on them later), Mazzy Star, something simply unexpected that makes me forget what radio station I'm listening to for a very short moment. It's a fairly tight formula at times, but I get the feeling that there's some leeway, particularly later at night (one DJ was playing an advance copy of the Candy Machine LP every single night this summer... "spotlight on Dave McGurgen... he's got Robert Tilden in him..."). All the same, it's a pretty tame, dry format. So, that's the state of radio in my little world. (I'll spare everyone the "there's no college radio in DC" rant... that's fodder for a whole new issue.) The other stations aren't much better - an album rock station, two oldies stations, a couple "lite favorites/mix" stations, a Pacifica station which is totally PC in its formatting, and an NPR station. What bothers me is that there's no station willing to try something different. Nobody's willing to mix up a format. DJs aren't given much (if any) discretion over what they play. The whole enterprise is essentially dead. Why are no stations willing to break out? My guess is that most people don't actively think about the radio. It's something that fills in that gap while driving from point A to point B when the tape-deck is broken. It's what comes on after your alarm goes off in the morning. Since the programming is formulaic and the presentation is tight and slick, people aren't given the room to think about what else is possible. I suppose that I've been privileged to have had exposure to lots of different radio stations, including a few which essentially had no programming rules. This isn't to say that those stations are perfect - a free-form program can easily sound like utter shit (like the beloved choice of the NYC cognoscenti, WFMU, about half the time) - the DJs are trying SO HARD to be obtuse and challenging that it becomes unlistenable. (I dare anyone to tell me with a straight face that they enjoy listening to Wild Girl on WFMU on Saturday afternoons. Anyone.) A band like Green Day (derivative as they are) or New Order or perhaps even Velocity Girl has an important role in radio - it's that vaguely familiar sound that brings you back in from a wasteland of "stuff." This is true on commercial alternative stations just as much as on a true free-form station. If you don't throw in something vaguely recognizable every so often, most people won't keep listening. (This, ironically, is what keeps me listening to HFS and Arrow - I'll hear something I like eventually, and the rest of the time it's basically background fuzz broken by truly horrendous songs while I write news scripts.) Again, I'm probably an oddity in that I actively think about radio, what makes it good, what makes it dull, what has to be done to keep it good. For those fortunate enough to still be working at radio stations, it's worth considering what programming philosophy is, why it is, and how it can evolve. In commercial radio, programmers are overtly conscious of the station's "message" and its "target" and therefore create stale and predictable patterns which people can slip into without any interaction or thought. It's like old episodes of "The Love Boat" - you can tune in 25 minutes into a 60 minute program and know exactly what's happened before you tuned in, and exactly what will happen in the remaining time. As for "non-commercial radio," there's lots of programming philosophies. At my old radio station, WPRB in Princeton, NJ, the prevailing theory has always been to play stuff that can't be heard elsewhere on the radio. (They were doing true AOR programming in the mid 70s, before there were AOR stations, and have been a "college"-sounding station since about 1980...) When the majors started buying up everyone in sight and force-feeding them via MTV to "the kids," certain bands became _persona non grata_. (I'm not going to list them - the words "sellout" should be a tip-off...) Coupled with a gradual shift in the musical sensibilities of the rock directors, the station has recently moved into something of a "math-rock" phase. For the record, I was partially involved with starting an "indie-pop" phase, exemplified by bands on Simple Machines, K, Merge, and TeenBeat. That phase ended a couple years ago because some people left the station, and some of us kept expanding our musical horizons, and new blood shook things up. With a new staff coming in shortly, things will slide in a different direction. I'm not saying that WPRB is a bad station because of these phases - far from it - but I do believe that it sometimes becomes difficult to hear a full variety of bands on the station, depending on the particular combination of mutual musical tastes and interests. This isn't just WPRB's situation... I remember similar things happening at WZBC (Boston College) when I was in high-school... except that they were heavily into industrial-dance music, which was even more unlistenable in large doses than pure math-rock or wimpy jangly pop songs. Free-form stations go through phases, much as commercial stations slowly tailor their playlists to target audiences. The trick is for the people at the station to recognize what's happening and to then evaluate it - do we really want to move in this direction? can we alter things a little? So, conclusions?... More commercial/formatted stations should take chances, give their DJs some room to exercise some independent discretion in choosing songs. It's entirely possible to do that while retaining enough quasi-familiar material to keep a core audience around. At the same time, free-form and un-formatted stations should listen to themselves. You might not like pop music (or "poppy punk," or "math rock," or any other artifical subdivision), but you should be able to differentiate between a good example of the form and a bad one. I'm not a big fan of "east-bay-punk," but I could recognize that J Church and Jawbreaker and Crimpshrine were good examples of the form, and I'd play those bands. And what do you do when "band-x" gets signed and becomes a huge smash hit? Tough call. I certainly don't expect a good college station to play the new Pearl Jam LP in the way that WHF$ does. I do, however, expect a good station to objectively listen to the record and consider placing it in the record library without introducing it to the new-rotation bins. (From hearing copious amounts of the new Pearl Jam release - I think they're a better band now than they were when "10" came out. Would I add the new one to the library? Probably not, but I could be convinced otherwise.) A quick look at history suggests that most of the bands recently signed will be dropped in the next 2 years (does anyone remember the fate of Big Dipper?). Remember, the Lemonheads were one of the few bands to survive the last round of buying and dumping on the majors, and that's only because a.) they alienated their entire old audience; b.) had an album that could be pitched as "alternative" in early 1992 (i.e. post-Nevermind); and c.) became a heartless vehicle for a sassy pin-up star. There's no reason to give up on all the bands who signed. I'd bet that Jawbox, the Dambuilders, and Shudder to Think will find themselves without contracts... ditto for Bettie Serveert (if they're still in existence as a band...). Back to radio - fascism is a bad thing. Some of you have probably noticed and noted it on other lists, where there are so-called "thought-police" running around, determining what bands are worthy of discussion. Within a loose philosophical determination of "staying out of the mainstream," I don't think radio stations should be making absolute determinations of hipness, coolness, or anything else. Pet Clark is definitely un-hip, but her records also represent a pinnacle of pure 60s pop singing, and only 3 songs ever get played on oldies stations. So, I played some Pet Clark songs occasionally, to mix things up, throw out a familiar hook, make people think. Unfortunately, there is a very fine line between what I just described and the phenomenon of "camp," and it's too easy to cross over that line without realizing it. Abba has crossed the line. Tom Jones has crossed the line. Frank Sinatra may have crossed the line (and certainly did with his "duets" atrocities). But what about Martin Denny? Kim Fowley? Esquivel and Gershon Kingsley and the rest of the "space-age-bachelor-pad" creators? Should you warn a DJ about one but not another? One form of diversity may be introducing new records, but not if they all sound the same... playing jazz in a rock show might be diverse, but not if it's always Zorn/Art Ensemble of Chicago/Cecil Taylor/whoever. Balancing "favorites" against "diversity" against "outside popularity" is tough. These are the decisions and choices that music directors and program directors should be facing, considering, wrestling with. If they don't, they're not doing their jobs. I'm not telling anyone how to do their job (not even my pals at WPRB who will read this and promptly curse me out). I'm just asking people to consider the job and what it really means (if anything). If the college and community radio stations aren't doing it, then the commercial ones won't ever consider it. And that may just result in the death of radio. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Fear of an Ethnohat Anne Zender There's a lot wrong with radio these days; otherwise, why would I be listening to so many tapes? Actually, this has always been the case, but in recent times, it seems this airwave curmudgeon has something new to grouse about: The growing popularity of a certain trend that I, for lack of a better word, have named ethnohat-ism. As far as I know, there's no actual definition for ethnohatism: it comes from the term "ethnohat," which one of my friends, about four or five years ago, coined to describe the little cylindrical, pillbox-style woven hats worn by men & women who considered themselves of a hip -- but not hippie -- persuasion. Sounds pretty benign, right? But apply this term to radio and you have something very different. Ethnohatism, when applied to radio, becomes just another fashion trend, one that is rendering some forms of non-commercial radio disappointingly unlistenable. It started, maybe, with Paul Simon, stealing all those township jive licks for "Graceland." Or maybe it was David Byrne copping various musical styles on his solo albums. At any rate, at some point in recent radio history, marketers became increasingly aware of the growth potential for what became known as "world music," a generic term for any kind of music that was non-American (thus conveniently pigeonholing American music and everybody else's). Think labels like Shanachie or Rounder. Think klezmer music, Afropop, South American flute. But make sure it's upbeat, vaguely exotic, and non-threatening. Market it to wealthy white people -- aging yuppies, disenchanted hippies, and Deadheads. It may not be the cash cow that youth-oriented music is, but it's more steady, and certainly not as loud. In these post-WOMAD Festival times, an increasing number of non-commercial radio stations are cornering a new share of the market by embracing this kind of music, often, tragically, to the near-exclusion of other forms. "But isn't the propagation of world music a good thing?" you may ask. "Surely American indie rock isn't the only kind of music in the world that matters?" Of course it isn't. I like lots of different kinds of music. But the smugness of ethnohatism is a bad thing, and worse, it is a dead end for radio in the '90s. For programmers, embracing ethnohatism means abandoning critical thinking. One is playing polite, PC, sanitized music that isn't heard on commercial radio. It won't piss off any listeners who might otherwise be inclined to donate money to a listener-supported radio station. At the same time, it allows one to feel self-righteous without taking any real chances. After all, listeners might object to hearing anything difficult or challenging in their cars at 3 p.m., but how can they object to ethnic music without casting themselves as racists? Furthermore, the whole enterprise smacks of a certain guileful political correctness. If we listen to music from another culture, that must mean we're better, more tolerant people than those still cranking up Billy Ray Cyrus or Aerosmith. Never mind if this music is native to people who could never afford to own the car one is driving or the stereo one is listening to. Listeners can continue to live a conspicuously consumptive middle-American lifestyle with clear consciences. Ethnohatism also sidesteps one of the continuous problems of culture vultures today -- the mainstreaming of "alternative" music, whatever genre is in question. Today's "alternative" music, as seen in shopping mall record-store shelves, isn't much of an alternative at all. (The 'new rock' station in Indianapolis endorses the angry loud white-guy ethos better than I've seen since the heyday of Boston and Kansas.) The music that the ethnohats so blithely - and injudiciously - endorse as "great" isn't really an alternative, either. But it spares radio programmers and their listeners from ever having to confront the messy, the angry, the badly-recorded, the loud, the strange...at least not before 11 p.m., when most of the other stuff can come out of its ghetto. And no, I'm not just talking about Guided By Voices or the Boredoms. I'm talking about hiphop, or Eastern European punk bands, or South American death metal-all of which may present sonic challenges or voice sentiments that wouldn't go down particularly well with the ethnohat crowd. OK, ethnohatism is not a particularly catastrophic trend. It's certainly not the cause for distress that, say, dj-less radio programming is, and it does, in some ways, help break new ground that commercial FM stations can't or won't consider. But at the same time, ethnohatism represents something that is hard to pin down and harder to swallow. It espouses challenging the established order, but it replaces a status quo of its own. "We're already providing an alternative," its proponents say. "Go away and don't bother us." This is not a true alternative, nor is it a bid for true diversity. It's a feeble attempt to appear hip without actually upsetting anyone. After all, if this is "world music," shouldn't it bridge more than one world? This is a lesson radio needs to learn, and re-learn, until true musical diversity is achieved. [Anne Zender, co-editor of the Indie-List Digest, has worked in community radio for seven years.] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Radio - it's a sound salvation... Dann Medinn here it is . here i am . turn it up . fuckin loud . radio radio . when i got th music . i gotta place to go ............................................. -- rancid ok... so maybe it's not th most poetic aesthetic semantic semblence of beauty you've ever read in yr life. but then again... is college radio? it's now been about a year and a half that i've been involved in non-commercial radio here @ th university of connecticut. yr round, about 3200 watts, nice library, pretty good service, and occasional high tension atmosphere. (what do you expect when you throw together a billion of different formats run by lots of folks volunteering hours upon hours a week? of course, th friction comes from those that spend only their hour or two a week- sometimes- helping to keep everything run smoothly). i think that it would probably also be safe to say that it's been in this last year 1/2 that i've matured musically more than in th rest of my whatever years combined. i've had th opportunity to do a jazz show, hardcore, fill-ins fr classical & urban styles, and th show that i do now; mostly punk and indie poppish based, w/th last half hour devoted to spoken word stuff. sometimes, i've had among my best listening experiences in th studio, lights off, headphones on & speakers blaring, say, rocket from th crypt, dancing and screaming along and making all th segways between toons so smooth that it feels like i'm listening to a mix tape made in heaven. then again, th show must go on, even when yr in th crappiest of moods; melancholy fever and you can't even play a song w/out screwing up and broadcasting silence fr 2 minutes every time. but that's th thing about non-commercial radio... it's allowed to be human. it seems like everything else advertised and followed in our culture is so... polished, unrealistic, stupid. there was a song by born against, where sam is just screaming "i'm not an idiot!!!" over and over again. i don't think that th song is about th same thing, but th way it comes out is exactly th way i feel whenever i get lambasted by commercial enterprises, inc. this includes tv, yr local rock station, movies, hack fiction, everything. don't you ever feel like yr being condescended upon? th media wants me to believe that a) kenny g is jazz & b) he's wow, rad? what's happening? how long are we supposed to laugh @ th same jokes? listen to th same songs? kathleen hanna once wrote in her fanzine ("my life w/evan dando..."/highly recommended) something to th effect of "all it takes is good looks and a lot of $$$ to earn th label 'genius'". counting crows? john grisham? people argue that they don't want to understand or be aware of politics because it's too complicated, yet we analyze sports and games down to a dime. don't get me wrong, i'm not shootin down on athletics, just people. when i was in los angeles this summer, i got a chance to tune in to th internationally (ooooooo!) famous (?) KROQ, K-ROCK, crock, or whatever it was called. i was kind of excited because i intern fr alias, and th archers of loaf's "web in front" had just been added. never mind th fact that th cd was about a year old, if these guys ever went big, it would have to be made known to th public that you heard it here on w$$$ FIRST. there is a com.station, i think in boston, that does this. wfnx i believe. they really put out adds w/pictures of belly, smashing pimpkins, noivana, and th like accompanied by "add" dates, and th old "you heard it here 1st!". that's almost as funny as th time they followed up helmet's "unsung" offtheir second full length, 6 months after it was released, w/th "best in nu music" line. duh! whatever. i stray. so anyways, i'm a little excited, cuz this is weird because th last year of hyping my favorite band i'd be used to hearing th "archer of WHAT?" response, and here they are about to hit th big airwaves. to make a long story short, th station sucks. th music was horrible. i'd get excited to hear th dambuilders,(th single track, of course) and then get depeche mode's greatest hits, followed by that horrid gin blossoms song and th stone pilot dummies, w/th cure's "friday i'm in love" to wrap up a 20 minute "music marathon". followed by 10 minutes of bad commercials. followed by 10 minutes of sexist not-funny-but- i-think-i-am dj soundbites. every time i'd try, i could never listen fr more than 20 minutes w/out getting sick. i never did hear that song, altho' fr a while they were playing it twice a day.{insiders note: when yr cd gets added to a station's pre-planned playlist (fr one song), be prepared to send that station 50 or so copies of that disc. even if they only play it once a week. or month.} kill me pleze, it's this kind of shit that has been stealing th soul out of music. money. it always has to come down to money. i'm not sure about how many of you dig punk, but jawbreaker just signed to geffen, and they want to put together a lollapallooza-like tour w/folks like green day, offspring, bad religion, etc. no longer will you be able to see some of yr favorite bands in their best atmospheres... and this really hurts. granted, it is kind of selfish, and i can understand th concept of signing to pay th rent. but what some of th upper echelons are doing to exploit BOTH independent and punk rock is so sickening, and it makes my heart sad. bands start sounding th same. people forget what creative music is, and horrible bands ride th gravy train and a thousands of locals decide to sound exactly like them. soul is john coltrane. soul is james brown. soul is trenchmouth, sunny day real estate, pavement. and we thus return full-circle to where we started; th occasional stress-paved atmospheres disregarded. we don't ask fr 50 copies of a cd so that we can play one song. hell, if we like that disc, we'll play whatever darn song we choose! alternative used to mean something. an alternative to what's everywhere else around you. a chance to hear something nu. sure, we get people that call us up all pissed off because i'm not playing blind melon, or th nu pearl jam...fuck- borrow yr neighbor's cd! even doing th jazz show, i like a lot of acid jazz, giant step stuff, and experimental gunk as well as classic big band and bop. i'd get angry phone calls even then, playing somebody not that insane, like bill frisell. yet there's another side to all of this. there's th people that call you up to tell you that they're from l.a. & th stations out there suck & that it's nice to hear something different on th radio. there's th folks that ring and ask fr th name of th band that you just played & th address of th label. there's radiothon, which keeps us non-commercial stations alive by getting pledges from our world music listeners, jazz listeners, celtic show listeners, etc. this wasn't meant to be so much of a rant towards th commercialized aspect of a "shudder-to-think" american corporate society as a sigh of appreciation fr th alternatives to it, and th people that put in large chunks of time to contribute keeping it alive. no, it's not perfect. last night i couldn't get my shit together, kept on going blank on th air, th monitor speakers blew, and i ended up skipping spoken word to play another 30 minutes of "i am sad" music. then, th urban styles dj was a half hour late, and i was supposed to leave my show early to get up to providence by 9:00pm, and of course this was th one time no one else is in th building. imperfection. a fuckup. something that bothered me so much last night, but now, thinking about it again, i'm almost glad that something like this can even happen @ a radio station. that imperfection is actually human, and greasefree segways between green day and alice in chains is not. kinda like that rancid quote @ th very beginning, there's soul in feeling, in being emotional, in music. as far as th case of our own whus goes, i know that when I got th music, i'll have a place to go. duh. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RANT--New blood for DC: Level, VHF, & the BLack Cat Rob Thornton I've been putting together a zine, and as I did a whole bunch of reviews, I noticed that there seemed to be more potentially neat stuff, more _possibility_ than I thought there would be in the D.C./Va./Md. area. This was curious, so I started to think about why this was so. Eventually, I decided that the (relative) newcomers to the "scene"--The Black Cat, VHF, and Level Records--have helped bring more diversity to the area. It's not that Dischord, Simple Machines, and Teenbeat don't put out lots of good music, 'cause they do, but the way that "scenes" are born ineveitably leads to some restrictions on what music is played there. This is obviously a double-edged sword. Hey, that's why Winger or Journey wouldn't make it in "indie" rock, but it also means that some "indie" scenes might tell a great creative band, "Hey you're not punk/indie/lo-fi/whatever enough. Why don't you...." These are the risks that we run as a scene miraculously comes together and thrives. When a "scene" is born, taste-meisters have to emerge with the resources, talent, and ambition to make sure that their preferences get top priority over others. Naturally th' meisters and their friends attractlike-minded musicians, fans, and "We Are So Cool" hangers-on, and naturally if there's more than one they either cooperate or compete. Even when they cooperate, an unwritten agreement is forged. If you're in you're in, and if you're out, you're out. Musicians who want to play in areas where the biggest taste-meister crowds gather, usually need to plug in or start their own thing. And a scene is born. Inevitably, someone ends up attracting the biggest crowd and they set the tone for the rest. For example, at most D.C. "indie" shows, audiences usually don't move much, and moshing is normally discouraged. I'm guessing that this has quite a bit to do with Ian MacKaye, who frowns on moshing 'cause it's pretty violent. Since moshing is simply the most extreme form of movement, other forms of rhythmic expression are damped down in a backwards chain reaction. The music created and released by scenes are set in a similar fashion. Once again, that can be good or bad depending on your tastes. If you like Mantovanni, John Zorn probably won't be your style. And thanks to Level and VHF, the "indie" range has been expanded, and that can only be good in the long run. With VHF, we now have the noise factor present here. Ah, noise! Glorious feedback, atonal fragments, and distortion till your brain bursts! Rake, Flying Saucer Attack, Wingtip Sloat and old English standbys Skullfinger can blast your brain silly. They fill out my daily musical requirements right nicely along with other local bands like Grenadine, Tuscadero, Viva Satellite!, Antimony, etc. What's also neat about VHF is that it brings all sorts of interesting and unknown noisystuff from anyplace from Connecticut to Finland to these shores. When I listen to the best of VHF and related labels Sweet Portable You and LoudThud, wide vistas of potential open up that I never knew existed in this area even though they're in Fairfax Station, VA. No on concentrate the noise/lo-fi thing here, and Bog bless them for doing it. Level Records gets second place because it's a new label that has obviously brought new folk forth into the area. Several of the of the bands that were at a free "Alternatives Festival" at Dupont Circle (which included Antimony, the Norman Meyer Group, and others) were also on Level's "Teenage Hits" comp. And the complilation also featured Dischord and K artist Lois along with a slew of other new bands. And the Black Cat has done its part by bringin a fair amount of the interesting and out of the way stuff that the D.C. area has missed out on since d.c. space, a local place where a lot of the cutting edge-ish performers used to played, closed down. Now I never had a chance to go to d.c. space, but I have listened to many people mourn its passing for the reasons outlined above. The Ex and Tom Cora, John Zorn's Masada, Thurston Moore, Nothing Painted Blue,Nice, Polvo, Wingtip Sloat, and a slew of little D.C. bands have played there along with many "indie" heroes and the usual D.C. culprits. They seem to take risks that other clubs shy away from. Maybe this is true because they have a bar-and-grill-type place in a second room which is isolated from the stage, and perhaps it supplies needed revenue. That might be why the Cat can do what it does, because the other clubs have restrictions that limit them. The 9:30 Club, one of the other main "indie" sources, is in downtown D.C., so they have to pay bigger rents, attract larger crowds, and take fewer risks. 15 Mins, which is the other "indie" source in D.C., manages to defy this equation somewhat, but they combine shows with other sources of revenue (big dance parties, poetry slams, &c.) In any case, the D.C. "scene" is a much better place 'cause VHF, Level, and the Black Cat are around. The more the better.... ================================= Coursing through the wires... ================================= Not a top-ten list, not a review section, just a brief list of what some people have found interesting lately. --> Dann Medinn jazz selections: from th pretty nu dept.: either/orchestra's "th brunt" on accurate records; from th not that nu dept., medeski, martin, & wood's "it's a jungle in here" on grammavision records. from th really not that nu @ all dept.: charles mingus's "ah-um" on columbia. from th good to listen to w/a steamy cup of equal exchange gourmet hazelnut joe dept.: choose from eric dolphy, ornette coleman, charlie parker w/dizzie gillespie, billie holiday (better fr a bluesy-type cup), ray anderson, and alice coltrane. from th "o-my-god-this-book-was-interesting-and-i-even-had-to-use-my-brain!" dept.: i recommend th following authors: margaret atwood, dostoyevsky, kafka, albert camus, douglas coupland, simone de beauvoir, and samuel becket. poets of my year: annie dillard, gary syder, charles bukowski, atwood, peter meinke, and edgar lee masters's "spoon river anthology". --> Sean Murphy o Egg Nog lattes at my neighborhood Starbucks o Saint Etienne, "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" (LP version) o Built to Spill, "Car" (7" version) o Terminals, _Uncoffined_ and their cover of Roxy Music's "Both Ends Burning" o Dominion Lager, Blue Ridge Golden (good quasi-local beers) o Dis-, "Just My Own Special Little Kind of Ass" (old version) o Thomas Pynchon, "Vineland" o Thee Speaking Canaries, _The Joy Of Wine_ o two old mix tapes of sad, sweet songs which make me cry if i'm in the wrong/right mood (lotsa Marine Girls, Felt, slowish Stereolab, the 7" version of "Babe in the Woods" by MDID... it's that time of the year.) ================= In Closing... ================= Big shout-outs to: Eric Sinclair (for providing a new home for the bloofgamatic mailing system), Road Zone pinball, all who responded to the "telegraph's not dead yet" notice, and anyone who actually reads this before sending it to the big "expunged" pile in the sky. A hearty "fuck you" to: University of Chicago, Tastee Diner-Bethesda [how can any self-respecting diner not serve chocolate milkshakes?], and the Law School Data Assembly Service. As for the little contest regarding the name of this publication, I received some pretty funny comments (name of the next Air Miami single, lots of Oakland A's references, one to a dorm at Fordham), but no correct ones. To be honest, the name doesn't really mean much, it's just a quasi-convenient title so I can organize things, and so other people can tell me which publication they want when writing for a subscription. (Some of you, however, might have noticed the answer in the "dedication" section of this issue...) I'd offer another contest, but I can't think of any good questions right now. Maybe next time... And what about Finley Breeze #2 ?... it'll happen. Probably around the end of January/beginning of February. I promise it won't be a valentine's day thing. I don't believe in valentines. The "topic" will be announced sometime after the new year begins. OFFICIAL INFORMATION SECTION: DISCLAIMER: All material contained within is the responsibility of the original author, as identified by name and electronic address. If there is no clear attribution, then I probably wrote it, and you can bitch at me. This may be reproduced freely, but I'd ask that those doing the re-distribution give credit where it's due. QUESTIONS, complaints, comments, etc. about the publication as a whole are welcome. Submissions are even better. Subscriptions are cool, too. All should be directed to: grumpy@access.digex.net As I get a lot of random mail each day, please make it clear at the outset that you're writing about FB, not just for your health or to see if you can send mail from your net-site to mine. Finally, as the inheritor of the Telegraphic mission specifications, I'm also holding onto the Telegraph archives. All three are available from me if you want 'em.