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RC 216: Pop Is Dead 1 – Radio Musicola

I started the Pop Is Dead mix back in 2004 or 2005 – yes 7 or 8 years in the making! Finally got round to doing it, and I’ve collected so many songs about the music industry that I decided to do a series of shows about the State of the Music Industry – starting with my favourite subject: radio and especially the dumbing down and computerised playlists of music stations. Starting with the commercial and local stations in the 70′s and 80′s was  the rise of the playlist and the DJ not having track selection choice.

Now in the digital age we have the same repetitive stale format being copied endlessly by corporate megaliths and the music being as disposable as the products advertised between the songs, safe ‘classics’ and golden oldies, inane chatter and local radio blether.

And sadly it’s spread to the non-commercial BBC stations so Radio 1, 2 et al are also playlist/genre crazy and ruled by producers and committee. The last of the truly freeform DJs are being sacked, have died or are on digital stations or relegated to very late night on public broadcasters who have to have the odd token cred DJ – John Peel would spin in his grave. And sadly the music industry is complicit – feeding lazy X-Factor slush and corporate blandie to these playlists. Radio 1 originally and 1Xtra now might exist to provide an alternative to the pirates, but really it mostly doesn’t cut it.

So here’s an audio fight back against the playlist and dumb music radio programming (this is why the podcast is called Radio Clash – did you guess?) with a lot of interruptions from bad commercials, subverted jingles, George Carlin, Victor Lewis Smith, Whispering Bob Harris, Chris Morris and loads of hiss…

The One And Only One for You… (2:05 112Mb)

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Podcasts, Radio Clash Shortlink
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RC 205: Royal Dreading

A Post-Coachella show and what could be more English to come back to, a cauldron of self-hatred doffing our (dutch) caps at our overlords than a Royale Wedding with Cheese? So inevitably as everyone is totally sick of it after the event (and during and before…) so this show has a theme of royal dreading – of the marriage of Kate Middleclass and Will.i.am.P-Rex.Features and the chilling effect on protest in London – but the music hasn’t been pre-arrested before the Big Day, so it’s a mix of old and new favourites, especially of a rocky/punky/noisy electro bent like it’s ’77 all over again.With ruminations on England, Oh England, Uncle Osama and a very weird weekend.

It’s long but very worth it (as Wills said to her on the Wedding Knight)

Stuff the Jubilee (Line and all it’s Engineering Works) - 120Mb, 2hr 8 mins

  • Friendly Fires – Live Those Days Tonight
  • Sleigh Bells – Tell ‘Em
  • HEALTH- We Are Water
  • Xray Spex – Identity
  • Iceage – White Rune
  • Cramps – New Kind Of Kick
  • Big Audio Dynamite – V. Thirteen
  • Girls On Top – The White Single
  • Sleigh Bells – Infinity Guitars
  • Skrillex – Rock N’ Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)
  • Borgore Feat. Diplo – Sunset
  • The Chesterfield Kings – She Told Me Lies
  • Zomby – Strange Fruit
  • Richard X – Freak Like Me (Girls On Top Dancehall Remix)
  • Billie Ray Martin & Hard Ton – Sold Life (Original Version)
  • Virgo Four – Take Me Higher (Ray Mang Re-Edit)
  • Adonis – No Way Back (Greg Wilson Re-Edit)
  • John Rocca – I Want It To Be Real (Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk Piano mix)
  • Negativland – More More on Music, Suicide Man, Idle Threats, Etc.
  • Laika & The Cosmonauts – Psycko (Themes From Psycho And Vertigo)
  • Negativland – Celebrity Wives Quiz, More Idle Threats, People Are Talking, Etc.
  • The Low Anthem – Boeing 737
  • Gayngs – Cry
  • The Dukes of Stratosphear – You’re A Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel)
  • PJ Harvey – England
  • Tiny Tim – There’ll Always Be An England/Bless ‘em All/It’s A Long Way To Tipperary
Podcasts, Radio Clash Shortlink

Mark Hosler of Negativland on Creative Commons

Mark Hosler talking in 2006 – I didn’t know Negativland was involved in the creation of the Creative Commons sampling license. :-D Love the comments about idealism, artistic and creative control being impossible, Marky Mark and that advertising is not free speech.

And via Eric Kleptone is some documentary footage of the True/False tour, and interview with Don Joyce and Mark Hosler. Where is this from? (can’t be Sonic Outlaws as that was 5 years earlier). I wish the True/False tour had come to the UK (in fact I don’t think they’ve ever toured the UK, not in recent times anyway).

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Kevin Blechdom and Blevin Blechdom do Jackie

Just heard this on Do or DIY’s latest podcast which as usual is amazing and wonderful *shelves current podcast and starts again ;-) * and it’s great to hear some new music from Kevin Blechdom (of Bastard fave cover ‘I Will Always Love You’ with Dsico), also reunited with Blevin Blechtum as Blechtum from Blechtum where it all began (or bleched?). Watch for a whole load of beautiful blechdumb.

They both deserve to be a lot more known…amazing that the US creates wonderfully quirky electronic musicians and experimental musicians which actually have wider appeal, and mostly they get ignored at home unless they’re hipsters like Animal Collective, MTV like Devo or just MEH like Girl Talk (thinking people like Matmos, Negativland, Residents, ECC, Cex, Venetian Snares – ok he rarely has wide appeal, Chicks on Speed hey they’re nearly all in SF/Bay Area…or had to move to Europe. Hmmm.).

I’m guessing unless the quirks fit into some branding strategy the US media and music industry will want to lop them off, whereas here the quirks and non-homogeneity is what makes it cool.

Anyway enough ranting and more blech:

Love the plants and beekeeper masks, LOL.

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