NUMBER OF CDs REVIEWED FOR ADDING 6/19: Twenty-two, plus three more that I technically did earlier in the week (Maserati, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Beastie Boys). And I might get to The National, Je Suis France, and Shapes and Sizes, all of which I only received last week, before I leave…

TOP 5 ADDS, TENTATIVELY: Beastie Boys, The Mix Up; Maserati, Inventions for the New Season; Minus Story, My Ion Truss; Tacks, the boy disaster, oh, beatrice; BLKTOP PROJECT, self-titled.

NUMBER OF EMAILS SENT: Seven, including two I sent to the playlist mailing list to check to see if I could still send to it (as the database seems to be down at the moment).

NUMBER OF EMAILS RECEIVED: Six, including two replies from that mailing list. And two automated responses besides, and one reply to an email sent tonight.

Holy cow, this Je Suis France album is great. I hear the other two mentioned are also awesome. And I have to finish reviewing a half-dozen other CDs and get those out this week. And I’m not sure of the add date of a few CDs. And I have to get to know that Love of Diagrams album too. What a world.

3. Something tells me without the neat haircut, he’d just be Conor, the guy serving me a Mochaccino in Omaha.

9. When Chopin was around, was there some idiot like me writing stuff like, “I don’t get all the fuss!”

But the real reason I’m writing:

23. It’s exhausting to keep up with new music. Sometimes I think I should throw out everything except Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book, and I’d be perfectly happy.

And this related tidbit from 29 Thoughts on the Apparent Sexiness of the iPod (link is a touch NSFW):

22. One thing about the iPod is that it’s put such a premium on taste — listening to the right music, being up to date, making sure you’re just as cool as your friends has never felt so important. But it’s tiring. Sometimes you just want to put on Peter Gabriel’s So and relax the fuck out.

Being paid to review music all day sounds cush, but it’s not all Spoon and Rasputina (regrettably!). To be frank, some of the music that comes in I can just instantly pass on. But having to make that decision leads to some anguish, doubled if the artist personally calls or emails me asking about action taken. Other music that comes in takes very little effort to add–I know the artist, I love them already, I’m told which songs have F-bombs (or a lyric sheet is included). Where the real effort is is the valley between those two extremes. I received another thirty CDs yesterday, including two that were going for adds¹ that same day. If a bio doesn’t mention which songs have swear words, and there’s no lyric sheet, and there’s no lyrics on the Internet, I’m left in an uncomfortable position. I can’t very well listen to every track of every CD, and even if I could, that’s the other problem–when I’m reviewing music, I have to make sure that I’m constantly actually paying attention to what’s playing. Sometimes I’ll sit down to respond to emails, and I’ll put in some new CD before I do so. Ten minutes later I’m on track four and I can’t remember anything that I just heard, so then I have to roll it back over to track one.

But about the quotes there, as fun as it is to become acquainted with good new music and help DJs listen to good new music, and so forth, it is exhausting to only ever listen to that. I don’t often take CDs home with me to review. My home and my walk to and from the station is filled with music I know and love already, most of the time: Apples in Stereo, The Avalanches, Beulah, The Clientele, The Decemberists, DJ Shadow, Thelonious Monk, Rilo Kiley, Tom Waits, The Velvet Underground, The Violent Femmes, Wilco, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Zombies. These are some of my favorite musicians.
Usually when a label says they sound like Decemberists, DJ Shadow, or Tom Waits, they are not nearly as good as any of them. That’s the sad truth of it.

OK, enough rambling. I have work to do. Footnote 1, “going for adds,” after the cut.

1: “Going for adds” is a sort of an embargo date promoters and labels have, nearly always a Tuesday, before which they don’t want DJs to play a CD. They do this to have a single big promotional push for the albums or singles. It’s also the tastes-best-when-used-by date, because CMJ has a Top Adds chart, where music directors choose their five favorite new releases going for adds that week, and the most added gets the highest ranking. So if I really love a CD but I didn’t get to it until some time after 11 AM Pacific time on a Tuesday, it only helps if its chart ranking is up there, too. Recently I added the Aa album gAame, and it hit #1 on the charts, but its add date was weeks before (its arrival predated my taking over of the position); the promoter called me the next week and said he was glad, but that he had just finished promoting the album.

To introduce my credentials, I began as an assistant librarian for KUOI in the fall semester of 2005, about a year and nine months ago. Becky Dawson was the music director at the time, and we had French 101 together. After a few weeks on the job, after having been trained as a DJ, I was asked if I’d like to do a show. A few people who were planning on doing the 2-6 AM slot Saturday mornings had decided they couldn’t do it after all, and Arlie Sommer, then station manager, asked if I’d like to do it every other weekend (as a gentleman had volunteered to do it only that often). I agreed. November of that year saw the station’s 60th anniversary, and I became friends with, among others, Sam Butterfield, a DJ from 1946, and Tim Cavanaugh, the 6-8:30 PM Friday DJ and a former station manager. Tim was moving on to music director at KRFP, Free Radio Moscow, and encouraged me to apply for his slot in the spring. I got it, and I’ve done that slot ever since–three semesters and having just begun my second summer. I continued as a music librarian until last semester, after which I was asked to do this job.

This sounds like a non sequitur, but it will tie in. In Germany, as Professor Sandra Reineke explained one day in PolS 235, former politicians often join college faculties. Their political affiliations are well-known and not attempt is made at hiding or absolving oneself of them. It’s seen, according to Prof. Reineke, as experience and expertise. In America that wouldn’t fly, because allegations of bias and this and that would all come in. The Supreme Court offers another interesting example. The Daily Show, in their book America: The Book, put it nicely, and I’m paraphrasing, by supposing a president asks himself (herself) “How can I be sure that this nominee will only ever make decisions I agree with?”

Ultimately I serve at the pleasure of Andy Jacobson, station manager, my boss. I believe, though I’m not certain on this point, that he has unilateral hiring and firing power over KUOI staff. I don’t know the doctrinal ins and outs of university policy and how Idaho’s right to work status might affect things, but. Andy likes Bright Eyes; until their last album I was not a fan. I’m also not hot for Joanna Newsom, or Iron and Wine, and I’m kind of sick of Sufjan Stevens. There, I said it. But shall I keep my views hidden? Should I refuse to comment on anything I don’t like?

Part of my job, the way I see it, is as a gatekeeper to new music, deciding which shall go on the new music shelf and which shall not. This is perhaps the most fundamental part of my job, and maybe the one most open to criticism. Who am I to say this album’s not worth it and this one is? Well, I’m the music director, and you’re not. If I pass on an album and someone asks about it, I’ll let them review it and I’ll put it out. Some of my predecessors would not do the same. I’ll note that it hasn’t come up yet. Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom–these acts are such known quantities and have so many supporters that I wouldn’t pass on an album from any of them, even if I thought it was really, really awful. Maybe that’s regrettable. In a way it’s exactly contrary to what college radio is meant to be about, and we’re just like our maligned Clear Channel brethren in doing that: supporting a band because they’re already famous, not because the music’s any good. Why would I put an awful Iron and Wine album out, if I would pass on it if it were by any other name? Well, my DJs would demand it. It would chart at CMJ, and its promoter would call me and demand it. People might listen to our friends at KZUU across the state line instead of KUOI. Is this right or wrong or is it neither?

I don’t think I should hide my preferences. I don’t think I should hide the contrary either. Though we got the Dixie Chicks’s new album, I haven’t seen any Toby Keith come in. Nor have I seen Kelly Clarkson come in. But Travis did come in, and Nine Inch Nails came in, and Yellowcard, as mentioned, came in. I listened to the Travis CD and gave it a positive review, because I liked the album. I reviewed it, in part, because I was asked about it by a promoter. Nine Inch Nails I felt qualified to review (having listened to a decent amount of NIN in my years here on earth) but I did not review. I put a label on it, wrote down which songs have profanity, and put it on the shelf. It hasn’t been played yet. Yellowcard I only received yesterday, but I haven’t listened to it. I’ve heard Yellowcard, but I can’t stand it. I don’t like Yellowcard, I don’t like Underoath, I don’t like Saves the Day, I don’t like Thursday… I could go on. It’s not a genre I feel qualified to review, and to a point I don’t think the genre has anything going for it. But shall I try to find something good to say about everything that comes in, and put things out indiscriminately? Some CDs that come to the station have awful production, worse lyrics, and even worse art. My mission is to KUOI and to its DJs. If I don’t feel that I’m helping one or the other I’ll pass on the album.

There’s another question here, about the objective vs. the subjective. I don’t believe one can objectively review music. This is not a controversial stance. There is no innate barometer, no God-given metric, no universal agreement on what is good and what is not. My old roommate Stu thought The Sex Pistols were meritless, but still buys Weezer albums when they come out. This is but one example. I cannot say I categorically hate what I broadly call “emo.” I like some Reggie and the Full Effect tracks, I sang along to “Screaming Infidelities” a couple times, and I have fun at every hardcore show I go to. But… I suppose… a lot of it sounds alike to me. I beg pardon. I cannot pretend to like it, and I would do everyone a disservice if I did. But it leaves me with little option besides trying each CD in the genre out, and passing on it when I find I don’t enjoy listening to it. I strive in my work to find something good about a song or an album, and if I come up empty-handed, well, that’s all I can do.

The second part that comes in is how to promote an album. Everyone says they like all kinds of music, but I spend time with jazz, with classical, with rock, with hip-hop, with rap, with pop (too much time with pop), with experimental, with funk. Nearly all of these genres can be found in albums I’ve put out. Some genres–twee pop, indie rock–might be overrepresented e.g. in my Album Preview choices. But how else to decide? Quotas? A committee? The power is vested in me, and an objective review of the music is, again, impossible. I’m just as excited about great jazz as I am about great indie rock. Right now, KUOI doesn’t have a mission statement. I try my best to know music (reading music news, listening to everything that comes in, spending quality time with everything I own, buying LPs and CDs and reading music blogs often) and I know what I like. Though I like some metal, the 11-2 Monday night DJ, Trevor, does a metal show. He may be more ‘qualified’ to review metal, and he’s volunteered to review for me. Same situation with world music and two DJs at the station, same situation with folk/country and Friday morning DJ Preston. Right now I don’t know of any DJs who play emo. That’s the regrettable truth. As I look through music that’s been passed on by other music directors I see a lot of Smithsonian Folkways and Putumayo discs that I think are fine, or good, or great. I add them to the library when I can.

One solution to this problem, if it is a problem, is more transparency. I’m writing on this blog about the decisions I make, and I invite anyone who cares to to second-guess my decisions against albums. More on these topics later, when I sober up. No, I’m kidding. But I will write more if more occurs to me.

CDs reviewed: Smashing Pumpkins’ new single “Tarantula.” It’s not bad, but samey. Wooden Wand’s James & The Quiet. A Band of Bees’ Octopus: Going to Album Preview this one. My review: “Pro: sounds just like the Beatles. Con: Sounds like the Beatles circa Let It Be.” Tim Armstrong’s A Poets Life (sic): What the. The former Rancid frontman has gone and done a reggae album. I don’t know what’s happened here. Decent, though the lyrics are sometimes wanting.

Number of CDs received today: six. Number of CDs to review before Monday: seventeen.

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do on my show tomorrow night. Maybe just a potpourri of songs. One thematic idea that had come to mind was music introduced to me by other people, which might be fun.

But anyway, at KUOI we have a nightly album preview in which we play an album in its entirety. 10:30 PM Pacific time. As Music Director I’m in charge of selecting these and writing some words about ‘em, and here’s what’s coming up this week:

Tonight, June 6: J Dilla’s Ruff Draft (Stones Throw). J Dilla rapping! Expanded from its original European release by Peanut Butter Wolf, this release is wonnerful.

June 7: The Clientele, God Save the Clientele (Merge). I wrote about this album here on this same blog.

June 8: Culver City Dub Collective, Dos (Everloving). A music collective tied down by a drummer and a guitarist, this act from LA’s album has Jack Johnson (track 12), Ben Harper (track 13), Gil Evans-style jazz (track 6), and righteous 60s R&B (track 1). Really dug this one from Everloving, who also put out Cornelius’s new one Sensuous, about which I cannot speak highly enough.

June 9: The Ladybug Transistor, Can’t Wait Another Day (Merge). Not to be all hot for Merge at the exclusion of other labels. But man do I love Elephant 6 acts. Spent some time with Japancakes just this morning. Ladybug Transistor has their thing worked out really well. I love the harmonies on here. “Here Comes the Rain” is a highlight.

I’ll mention last night’s album preview, too, Bonde Do Role’s With Lazers. Brazilian hip-hop, in Portuguese. Great beats. Andy, the station manager, agreed the beats were killer, but objected to some of the obnoxious screaming. I suppose I’d agree.

I don’t feel at all qualified to review music like Yellowcard’s fairly. I’m also suspicious of anyone who would like a band like Yellowcard, because clearly they don’t have any taste. That’s what’s called a catch-22.

Man, what a beautiful album.

I can’t remember how I first came across the Clientele, but the first song of theirs I heard was “Saturday.” Even today it’s one of my favorites from the band. Wanting to make it legitimate and own the song on a CD, I ultimately picked up Suburban Light, a compilation of singles etc., directly from Merge; I decided that while I was at it I’d buy another CD and ordered Distant Plastic Trees/The Wayward Bus on the single-disc reissue (so as to legitimatize my copy of “100,000 Fireflies,” another wonderful track). I fell hard for Clientele afterward, and Strange Geometry was great like their earlier stuff except it sounded good: an instance in which better production helped the band. Naturally there was nothing wrong with their earlier work’s fidelity. I found it very charming. I asked a couple friends when they thought “Saturday” was recorded and they all figured it was a 60s 45rpm single, maybe. Anyway, about the new album: what a stellar band. What a sound. Their uptempo numbers are great, their downtempo numbers are great. I’m a sucker for steel guitar (and handclaps, and guiro, and rock organ) and its entrance on “The Queen of Seville” is killer, and its appearance a track later on “These Days Nothing But Sunshine” is as beautiful as anything.

Then, it’s unusual for my first post here to be about an album released fully a month ago. Usually we get stuff anywhere between a few days after the release, to (usually) a few days or a week before its release, to (less commonly) weeks before the release. But due to circumstances it didn’t get in my hands until yesterday. So it goes. Great album, though. Props to Lindsey from the label for getting it to me.