Feeling Lonely

When you spend as much time online as I do–and come on, I’m a blogger–well, I’ve never estimated before, but I read voraciously. Lots and lots of articles are digested, via Boing Boing, Digg, Daily Kos, Yahoo! News, and then dozens of other things I keep up on. Occasionally I’ll read something that really sticks with me: The Moral Case Against the Iraq War by Paul Savoy in The Nation, for one (not to wear my political allegiances on my sleeve or anything). Another couple of pieces I’ve loved for a long time are these humor essays by Philip Michaels, The Loner’s Home Companion and The High School Guide to Hate. The real sine qua non of this entry though is 29 Thoughts on the Apparent Sexiness of Conor Oberst, by Adam Boyle. This was part of a once-regular series on Nerve.com, detailing thoughts on the apparent sexiness of all kinds of things. Gems:

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.

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In one of my political science classes, political science was defined as the field studying how decisions are made. Indeed, Wikipedia’s definition is very close to that. I’ve been a ’serious’ student of music–in the listening sense–since I was maybe thirteen or fourteen; before that I mostly just listened to what was on the radio, and what my parents listened to. This, my first comment, has led me to write this post, and the topic here was one of the chief motivating factors behind getting a blog for my position.

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.

Slow day today. Came in at one o’clock, per my office hours, and found I had three missed phone calls all from the same number. Called the guy back and spoke about a couple CDs they had out to me. Fielded two more phone calls over the course of the day. I spent some time today going through the stacks and stacks of music that had been passed on or hadn’t got reviewed in years gone by and found a lot of gold, so I have to do something about that sooner or later.

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.

A year ago today I was listening to Slayer, because it was the National Day of Slayer, as it apparently is once more (per the website). Funny enough I was just talking to Trevor, the DJ from 11pm-2am Monday night/Tuesday morning, who does a metal show. We briefly discussed metal, and I learned he plays bass in a metal band here. The new 3 Inches of Blood (Roadrunner Records), I’ll mention, is pretty righteous. I like the song about the demon sword.

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.

Only music from majors today. from Warner Brothers, The Cribs, “Men’s Needs” (single, album version); from Astralwerks, The Little Ones’ Lovers Who Uncover (twice–once addressed to James Yeary, who was MD 9/03-5/04, and once addressed to Bennett, who was MD in 2002); from Universal, Straylight Run’s The Needles the Space; from Capitol, Yellowcard’s Light Up the Sky (ugh, did I just say I liked Capitol earlier today?); from EMI/Astralwerks, The Aliens’ Astronomy for Dogs (featuring a former Beta Bandman, apparently).

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.

Another hot tip from Lindsey at Merge: Ladybug Transistor live session mp3s, courtesy of Daytrotter. And Spoon’s new album is coming out soon too!

For a long time I didn’t pay hardly any attention to labels, until I started to see the same logos over and over and find that some of them were more consistently great than others. My favorite labels, then, are standard indie nerd kid ones: Barsuk, Kill Rock Stars, Matador, Merge, Emperor Norton (defunct), Kindercore (defunct), Touch and Go, Secretly Canadian, Sub Pop, Magic Marker, ANTI-/Epitaph and K; in the owned-by-majors field, Nonesuch, Astralwerks, Rykodisc and Capitol frequently release good things (including Capitol mostly due to Decemberists). These befit me, being an indie music nerd. Lately, though, I’ve been impressed with a lot of stuff coming out from Jagjaguwar, Domino, Kranky, Ninjatune, Mint, Asthmatic Kitty, Cuneiform, Stones Throw, One Little Indian, and Yep Roc. I’m sure I’m late to the game on most or all of these, but hey, I’m tryin’, man.

Also I love Lil’ Chief’s logo, and the Brunettes, who I saw open for Rilo Kiley in Seattle in `05 at the Showbox. And I love Smithsonian Folkways. Also I wish Orange Twin would put out more albums. There are quite a few labels that have dizzying rosters: Volcano, home to 311, Weird Al, and Tool(??); Vagrant, the label of Paul Westerberg, The Futureheads, and a few dozen mediocre emo acts; and V2, who puts out music from Josh Ritter (from Moscow, Idaho!), Bloc Party, and Mooney Suzuki (who have a new album out soon)… but also Moby, Sugarcult, and Slipknot imitators Dope. These are but three examples, all of whose names begin with a V. In fact some of the above-mentioned names have such a volume that their releases are widely variable in terms of quality. So it goes.

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.

Hi there, cats and kittens. I’m the new Music Director at KUOI-FM Moscow, 89.3 FM.

For the last two years (since fall `05) I’ve been a music librarian and DJ at the station. My show, the Man Date with Marcus Kellis, airs Friday nights between 6:30 and 8:30 PM. As MD I’m in charge of processing all the new albums we receive and compiling our weekly playlist (and submitting it and my 5 favorite new albums of the week to CMJ). Along with that I review most of the music that comes in and select our Album Preview, a feature airing nightly at 10:30 PM in which we feature a new album in its entirety.

My goals with this blog are to highlight new music, talk about the job, and whatever else comes to mind. Thanks for taking a look, and I hope to see you back.